a/n: Betas: Slaymesoftly and Mabel Marsters.

Banner made by: me, Dawnofme.


Soul Survivors
Chapter Six: Prize Collecting

Buffy walked back to the crypt with a smile on her face. What she’d told Angel about all the things Spike had done to show he loved her, she’d never said aloud to any one before. Deep down, she’d known all of that and it was all part of why she’d fallen in love with him, but to say it aloud?

She loved him and it was an absolute fact that she could back up with specific things that he was and did that made her love him. She sighed. Spike was an incredible being, there was none like him in the entire world and he was all hers.

The object of her adoration was still sitting in the same spot she’d left him in, with his head down. Maybe he’d fallen asleep; they were out there for a while, and he was a little drunk when he came home.

“Spike?”

His head snapped up and he wiped at his face as he avoided her eyes. “I suppose you want me to help you pack up your things,” he told her as he stood up, his shoulders sagging.

It took a second for his words to sink in and when they did, she felt a rush of anger so acute that she had to step away from him. Did he actually just offer to help pack her things so she could leave with Angel?

Glaring at him, she said, “Maybe Angel was right. Perhaps it was just about the chase for you and now that you’ve caught me, you’re bored already and would be happy to see me go.”

His eyes went wide and he leaned back as if she’d slapped him. “Are you daft? Of course I’m not happy to see you go.”

“Oh, but you don’t care enough to fight for me?” She crossed her arms and did her best to close off her hurt expression.

He stood up straighter, feeling a ray of hope. “You want me to fight for you? Where is the pillock?” Spike glanced around wildly. “I’ll tear him into bite sized pieces and stomp him under m’ boots.”

“Sit down.” She gave him a push and he fell back on to the couch. “I can’t believe you would think for one second that I’d leave you.”

He pulled her into his lap and searched her face. “You’re not going with him?” he asked, his voice filled with wonder.

Tears filled her eyes. “How could you think that I would, after I told you that I loved you?”

He glanced down at her hand in his and played with her fingers. “It’s not that I don’t believe that you love me. It’s just that you and Angel go way back.”

He gazed up at her, searching her face with his eyes. If he was looking for more assurance, she hoped that he saw it there. Now that she’d had a moment to calm down, she could see how Spike might think she would go away with Angel. It was only two weeks ago that she finally confessed her love for him. They’d had two glorious weeks together, but it obviously hadn’t been enough to balance out all the times she’d rejected him in the past.

“Yes, Angel and I go way back, and I just realized tonight how sick and twisted it was. I asked him to go and leave us alone.” She smiled at him and put her hand on his chest, loving how right it felt to be in his lap. “I am going to spend the next couple of years being so good to you, that you’ll never doubt me again.” She gazed at him sadly. “I’m so sorry for hurting you before.”

He turned her hand and kissed her palm. “Don’t be sorry, love. I don’t blame you for anything.” Spike looked at her in awe. “You really are mine?”

Buffy chuckled lightly and nuzzled his neck. “Yes, Spike, I’m all yours.” She raised her head with closed eyes.

The passionate kiss she was expecting did not happen and she opened her eyes when she felt him lean back. He rested his head against the couch and the smirk he now wore reminded her of the days when he was out to rack up his third slayer kill.

“What is that look for?” She rubbed his chest with one hand and wiggled in his lap.

“In all the decades that I’ve known Angelus, I’ve never won anything. Fights, Drusilla, towns; he’s won them all. Yet here you are and there he’s not.” When he finally noticed her frown, he added quickly, “I’m sorry, but you have to allow me a good gloat. It’s been a long time coming.”

“I’m not some prize that you won.” She went to get off his lap, but he wrapped his arms around her and held on tightly, with a satisfied grin on his face that made Buffy want to slap him.

“Oh, you are the grand prize, pet. The mega lotto jackpot and I’m the richest bloody vamp in the universe.”

“You can’t sweet talk me with pretty words,” she said sarcastically. “I just kicked Angel out of here and I don’t like that he’s still in this room. He can’t have any part in us. None.”

Spike played with her hair and gazed at her for a moment before the smirk was back. Grabbing the bottom of her shirt, he attempted to yank the garment over her head. Buffy covered his hands with her own.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“I’m collecting my prize.” Spike raised an eyebrow. “You got a problem with that?”

When she shook her head with a small smile and let go of his hands, he lifted her off his lap and threw her onto the other end of the couch. Buffy’s squeals and loud screams of delight bounced off the crypt walls and echoed outside.

A scraggly stray cat, balancing his way across the fence, froze in mid-step and flicked its ears. When another squeal pierced the air, he jumped down and raced away from Restfield Cemetery.


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


“This it?” Spike pointed at the wide metal door in the back alley.

“Yep.” Buffy said.

“I don’t see why we can’t just work out at home?”

“I think we’ll get much more done here. In front of other people.” Buffy smiled at him and rubbed his leather-covered arm. “Perhaps we’ll actually get a full training session in.”

He grinned at her as he knocked. Could he help it if violence turned them both on? Regardless of the length of their sessions, Buffy was getting stronger every day. It was not surprising, given her physical condition before death, that she was far stronger than he had been at the same vampiric stage.

“Hey,” Faith greeted them before inviting them in. “I was just warming up.”

Buffy ambled around inspecting the familiar equipment before running her hands over the pommel horse. She scrunched her nose and kicked at the white and black square patterned linoleum that went only halfway across the room. The other half was just bare concrete.

“This area used to be the kitchen, storage area and freezer. We had to knock out a few walls and cart all the junk away. Took us two days.” Faith said.

The place reeked with the smell of fresh paint and every wall was covered in a mute grey tone. Boring. But what did he care? It wasn’t his place. He did need to see the owner, though.

“Is your watcher around?” Spike asked Faith.

“Yeah. He’s in the office just past that door.”

He nodded. “Well, then, I’ll leave you two to warm up. I’ll go let him know we’re here.”

The two girls were already stretching and warming up and he paused to admire his woman for a minute as she bent down to touch her toes. He could almost see the outline of her pink and tan laced pretties that she hid well under the brown sweat pants. Turning, he mentally slapped himself out of his wonderfully wicked thoughts. He needed to be on his toes if he was going to have a talk with Giles.

The smell of WD-40 hit him as the door opened smoothly. Before him was an open door that led out to the front of the shop and on either side was a closed door. One was the bathroom as his nose could detect. As he went to knock on the other one, the phone rang, so he leaned an ear against it instead.

“Giles, here. No. I don’t think you want to do that. I’ll go about it in my own good time.” There was menace in his voice as he argued with the person on the other line.

“I don’t think you understand the situation. She’s not alone. You’ve met him, and I don’t think you were quite ready to go against him either.”

A chair scraped back. “Stop calling me. Let me do my job. I’ll call you when the assignment is complete and not a minute before.” The phone slammed down.

Spike rapped his knuckles on the door. “You in there, Rupert? I wanna have a talk with you.”

Throwing the door open, Giles stared at Spike with unblinking eyes. “I wasn’t expecting you.”

“Really.” Spike put a hand to his chest. “I would think that you were. It’s been two days.”

“Come in.”

Spike was impressed with the very large office. Besides the small desk in one corner, a huge round table crowded with chairs dominated the space and every wall was lined with mostly empty bookshelves that reached floor to ceiling.

Giles gestured to a chair as he took a seat behind his desk. “The book arrived just a few hours ago and I’ve only had time to skim through it.” He put a hand on a large black book with no title. “And then there are these two.” His fingers brushed two books that resembled the one Giles used as a diary.

“My cousin works at Council Headquarters and she smuggled these out for me. I haven’t even looked at the diaries yet.”

“Are you ready to explain what’s going on, then?”

“Yes. I was going to call around and see if we could get everyone together. Maybe tomorrow night?”

Giles looked very uncomfortable and quite nervous, sitting straight in his chair.

“No. Let’s do this now.” Spike picked up the receiver and shoved it at him. “As far as I’m concerned, everybody who needs to know is in this building, but if you feel the need to have Willow and Xander here as well, you’d best call them over here.”

While Giles made his call, he watched in alarm as Spike picked up the book and flipped it open. This did not concern Spike in the least and he glared back at the watcher. Looking down at the first page, he was intrigued.

“Origins and Foundations of the Vampire Slayer Line“. He turned the page and glanced at Giles, who was just setting the receiver down.

“Some pretty heavy reading.”

“Very. There are only four handwritten copies of that work and all are copies of long lost or burned manuscripts that were translated from another language. That one was recently in the vault of one Quentin Travers.”

“What will he do when he finds it missing?”

“Aida was very careful. I’m sure she replaced it and the others with dummy books.”

Spike looked down at the first passage, skipping the pages of warnings before it and read aloud. “No one knows exactly who those first men were that began the slayer line. There were four of them, a young girl and a fierce and deadly demon. The story handed down through the ages is that they were somewhere in Africa. The demon was willing; the girl was not.”

Giles stood up abruptly and grabbed the book out of his hands. “I’m sorry, but most of this book is filled with details that you should not be privy to.”

“And you?”

“I’ve known many of these details since the third year of Watcher school.”

“There’s a school?” As serious as all this was, the thought of a younger tweed clad Giles sitting in a classroom amongst other tweed-clad snobs made Spike smile.

He did not get an answer. Instead, Giles said, “Willow and Xander are on their way now.”

Spike gripped the sides of his chair and got up. “Great. Let’s get in a little training before they arrive. He watched Giles as he slipped the three books into a drawer and locked it, before dropping the key into a pocket.

At the same time as they were entering the training room, the back entrance swung opened. Anya rushed in, long brown hair flowing behind her and an envelope in hand. She stopped, her smile fading when her eyes fell upon Buffy and then Spike. Faith walked around her and shut the door, before going to stand next to Buffy again.

The Slayer nudged Buffy. “How did you do it? Ever since I met that girl, she’s been ‘yakkity yak yak’ non-stop.”

Snapping out of it, Anya blinked twice and focused on Giles. “This was in the mail box. The first check.” She handed it to him and the two shop owners shared a smile.

“That’s wonderful news. Let me put this away and I’ll return in a moment.”

Anya’s eyes lit up with false exuberance as she went up to Buffy. “It’s so good to see you, again. I heard what happened to you, but don’t worry, death looks good on you. I mean, you look great.” She stopped short of hugging her when Buffy gave her an icy glare.

“Thanks, Anya,” Buffy said shortly.

“Oh, and that thing with Spike? Remember, it was just a one night drunken kind of a thing. I really didn’t know you two were-”

“That’s enough.” Spike stepped closer to them. “She gets that you’re sorry.”

Anya’s face relaxed. “Oh, good. I do hope you’ve forgiven Spike, too. Because you’d be crazy to go on missing out on those orgasms.”

Faith’s snort was barely audible over Buffy’s low growl, but Spike heard it and glared at her. She was unfazed by the look.

“Touch him,” Faith recommended. “Just once.”

Buffy turned to Faith, smacked her arm and said, “Shut up.”

Anya gave them all a confused frown. “I’ll just go and see if Giles needs any help.”

Faith’s laughter hurried Anya along and out of sight. Buffy glared at the door before turning her wrath on Faith. “I’m ready to continue. Are you?”

“Bring it on, B.” Faith crouched down low in her tight black work out pants; her matching tank top barely covering her ample bosom.

Buffy rushed her and they fell to the blue mat that they’d rolled out earlier. Faith ended up on top. “You’re letting your anger get the best of you, B.; instead of using it to your advantage.”

“Shut up,” Buffy said, jumping back to her feet as soon as Faith let her go. “I don’t need you to tell me how to fight.”

Spike backed up, leaning against the sawhorse. Buffy was glorious when she fought, and he had to admit it was pretty hot watching the two of them together. She’d taken her sweatshirt off earlier, and her hot pink tank top clung to her skin. .

Buffy got in a good roundhouse kick, catching Faith in the jaw. Propelled back by the force, the slayer slammed into the wall.

“Good one, love. That’s the way,” Spike said enthusiastically.

They both glared at him before Faith went at Buffy again. Giles and Anya entered the room again and stood by Spike.

“She’s still magnificent in a fight, and she hasn’t lost any of her training,” Giles said with satisfaction, then winced when Faith popped Buffy in the nose.

“The training is all there,” Spike agreed. “It’s the strength that needs to catch up.”