DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Buffy.
Buffy screamed out in sheer desperation. She had been trying for days to get them to listen to her but the doctors just didn't seem to hear her. They had ignored her completely, in fact, not even speaking to her when they moved her from the holding room this morning to the cell she currently found herself sealed in. At least they had fed her first.
She had no idea where her friends were. She could only hope that they had managed to escape when the Initiative had burst into the bar.
"Save your breath, pet. They ain't interested." came an all too familiar tone from the cell beside her own.
Buffy sighed heavily. It was kind of relief to know that she wasn't alone but she couldn't quash the regret that filled her knowing that Spike had been recaptured by these, so called, scientists.
"Are you alright, Spike?"
The words were out of her mouth before she realised but, strangely enough, she had no urge to take them back. She heard him chuckle but found no mirth in his tone.
"Just peachy, pet. Just don't eat anything that drops with a buzzer."
Buffy was confused for a moment but less than a minute later, a buzzer sounded in the cell directly across from hers. The vampire in the cell looked truly terrified as she backed into the far corner, clawing at the rear wall trying to get further away from the noise. Buffy couldn't help but notice how starved the vampiress looked.
"DO NOT DRINK IT!" yelled Spike, banging his hands on the wall of his cell, a frantic tone in his voice.
The vampiress looked desperately between Spike and the blood bag that had just landed on the floor of her cell. "But I'm so hungry!" she whined.
"DO NOT DRINK THAT BLOOD!"
Buffy flinched at the sudden growl in Spike's voice. The vampiress gave a strange mewling sound before slumping into the corner of her cell, her head turning away from the tempting blood bag still sitting on her cell floor, merely a foot away from her.
Buffy moved over to the side of her cell that joined on to Spikes, her hand automatically came to rest on the joining wall.
"She's starving, Spike." Buffy whispered, knowing that he would hear her anyway. "Why won't you let her feed?"
"It's drugged. She drinks that, she could end up chipped like me…" he paused for a brief moment. Buffy was sure she heard him sigh. "…or worse." he finally added.
"Oh my God!" gasped Buffy, hands flying to her mouth and stomach as the nausea began to spread.
Spike chuckled humourlessly once more. "Doubt he's listening, pet."
Buffy sank down to the floor, a fearful gasp lodged silently in her throat, her back sliding down the joining wall to Spike's cell.
"Pet? Slayer?" Spike's voice instantly took on a worried tone. "Answer me, pet!"
"I'm sorry, Spike." she whispered as the world began to darken. "I didn't know."
A loud thump on her cell wall startled her but still, Buffy couldn't move, couldn't get up. Hell, she could barely even breath now.
"Slayer?!" Spike's tone was frantic now. "Please, tell me you didn't eat at a buzzer! Please?!"
Buffy didn't answer. It's not that she wasn't trying to though. Just staying conscious was a losing battle for her now. Her last thought, before she went under, wasa a simple prayer for Spike to be okay.
***
Pain. Lots and lots of pain.
That's all Buffy could feel as she was forced back into reality. She could feel strange little prongs jabbing in to her body at various places, and then… more pain.
Just as she began to cry out, a deafening growl filled the room, drowning out her own cries, not giving the scientists the chance to hear how they had broken her.
"I'M GONNA RIP YOUR BLOODY HEADS OFF!"
A small sounding male voice, somewhere to Buffy's right, gave out, what sounded awfully like, a squeal of fear. That was quickly followed by a deep chuckling, somewhere off to the left but growing steadily closer.
"Put Hostile 17 back in his cage." said the deep voice. "I think he's ready for our little experiment now."
Buffy could only watch on silently as Spike was dragged away from her field of vision. She was so focused on where he was being taken that the sudden hand clamping down on her shoulder startled her. Her head whipped up to face the owner, her expression set to full force glare.
"What the fuck have you done to me?!" she demanded, forcibly covering up her overwhelming concern for Spike.
It was at that precise moment that Buffy realised that she was chained at the wrists. Not just chained, but hanging over the edge of a ledge, a balcony of some sort.
"Just a little test for the almighty Slayer." came the calm reply of the deep voiced man.
The scary sounding man turned out to be a rather pathetic, geeky looking, forty year old who, no matter how he tried to work that comb over, was most definitely balding. Buffy found it extremely difficult to be afraid of the man before her. She was finding it almost impossible not to laugh.
"Geez," she mocked. "Oh, please don't hurt me, Mr bald man."
"I am not bald!" he instantly snapped, grabbing for a nearby controller but missing it in his anger. He reached for it again, this time successfully, and turned back to smirk in Buffy's face.
"Don't worry, Slayer." he chuckled. "I'm not going to hurt you." he smirked viciously as he pushed the top button on the controller. "They are!"
Buffy looked down, a move that she instantly regretted. Every single cell door had just been opened. The hungry captives were cautiously edging their way out. Buffy's head shot back round to the balding man.
"What are you going to…"
He had moved closer, so close that he was almost directly in front of her. His hand shot out, striking her on the cheek and across the abdomen. The stinging pain that followed was all Buffy needed, to know that he had cut her.
"If you're really as good as they claim you are," the balding man chuckled, obviously pleased with himself. "You should last for quite a while down there."
The men around him laughed as well. Buffy realised, with horror, that some were even betting on how long she would survive.
"Oh," the balding man said, almost as an after thought, as he held his thumb over the bottom button of the controller, causing Buffy to start a slow descent into the growing chaos and bloodlust below, a lust for her blood. "I think you'll find that Hostile 17 is a little bit more hostile now."
"What the hell did you do?!" Buffy demanded, trying to swing herself back towards the balcony, but missing by mere inches each time.
"Removed his chip and increased his aggression levels." said the man calmly, before mockingly bringing his hand up to just below his mouth, a fake gasp in his expression. "Oh no," he mocked. "That was a naughty thing to do."
The man laughed as Buffy cried out, starved demons and blood crazed vampire's grabbing for her feet. Buffy kicked out at them, sending them scattering in all directions as she desperately tried to unhook herself from the chain lowering her. It was no use, the chain, and the angle she was dangling at, made it impossible for her to break free.
"Did I forget to mention that part, Slayer?" laughed the balding man from his safe spot on the balcony. "Oops!"
Buffy's retort was lost as she had to defend herself from another onslaught of demons and vampires. One vampire managed to get behind her, out of her reach. Buffy could feel his fangs scraping against her neck…
A terrifying, booming growl resonated throughout the room.
"MINE!"
The balding man seemed to squeal with delight as all eyes were instantly fixed on the lethal, leather clad, presence of the peroxide vampire.
The vampire behind Buffy slowly stepped away. The demons and other vamps surrounding her, moved aside, creating a pathway for the radiating fury that was now stalking towards the trapped Slayer.
"Ooh!" squealed the balding man, delighted. "This is going to be gooooood!"
Buffy locked her gaze on to Spike's movements. His head was slightly lowered as he stalked towards her but her Slayer senses told her that he was in full vampire, full predator mode. There would be no mercy shown by the blonde vampire tonight.
Buffy gasped when Spike suddenly rushed at her, stopping barely a breath away from her dangling body. His head slowly raised, yellow eyes flashing with unrestrained rage locking with her own startled expression.
"The Big Bad is back!" hissed the demon, also known as Spike. "Any last words… Slayer?"
Buffy's answer was stalled as Spike suddenly twisted her around in her chains. Twisted her all the way around before letting her go, leaving her to spin and jar back in to her previous position.
"Well, Slayer?" he hissed again. "Any last words before I tear out that defenceless little throat?"
The entire chamber fell silent when Buffy nodded her head. She kept it lowered for a moment, gathering her courage, and a deep calming breath, before she lifted her head once more and locked her gaze on Spike's narrowed yellow eyes.
"Yours."
***
The balding man was frozen to the spot. His brain was scrambled. He just could not figure out what the Hell had just happened.
One minute, the Slayer, who had caused his department so much trouble, not to mention money, was about to be ripped apart. The next? The vampires and demons were using each other like a living ladder and scaling their way up toward the balcony!
***
Buffy couldn't help but cringe slightly as the screams of the scientists and soldiers, currently being torn limb from limb by their furious former captives, reached her ears. She twisted herself away from the grisly scene the second her chains were broken. Strong cool arms wrapped themselves around her, drawing her directly against an equally cool chest.
"Don't you cry for them, love." whispered Spike as he soothingly rubbed her back. "Don't you shed one tear for those butchers."
Buffy slowly raised her head to meet his calm blue eyes. She smiled softly at his human face before burying herself back into his chest. "Thank you , Spike." she whispered. "Thank you for saving me!"
Spike chuckled, the mirth finally returning to his tone. "You saved yourself, pet."
At Buffy's suddenly raised head and confusion expression, Spike smiled and began to explain.
"When I growled like that, I wasn't threatening you, pet. I was claiming you… Telling the others to back away from my Mate."
He paused, kissed Buffy's suddenly shocked features and drew her just a little bit closer to him as he continued.
"When you said 'Yours', you confirmed my claim over you. Demons wont attack another demon's Mate. Not when there are nice fresh humans milling around."
Spike couldn't help but grow unnerved at Buffy's continued silence. He pulled back slightly and felt something tearing up inside him when he saw the tears running down her cheeks. He tried to move away from her but Buffy gripped him impossibly tight and locked her gaze with his.
"I knew you wouldn't hurt me." she said, ignoring the tears that still flowed freely from her eyes. "Something…" she pulled back slightly, grabbed his hand and placed it just over her racing heart. "Something in here… It told me to just admit it… That you couldn't hurt me if you knew how I felt… If you knew that I love you… I love you, Spike!"
Spike wrapped his arms tightly around her, her scoping her up off her feet and carrying her tenderly in his arms, over to just below the balcony. He growled up at some of the vampires that were still up there, who immediately lowered a ladder down for Spike to climb up. Buffy was too busy cuddling into Spike, her new Mate, to care about where the Hell they had managed to find a ladder in a place like this, or why said ladder looked a little on the red and sticky side. All that mattered was, she was with Spike, and they were both on their way to freedom.
***
Spike was left pouting in the shadows, with the rest of the demons and vampires, while Buffy moved towards the exit door. She had ordered them all to stay put while she checked for sunlight.
"All clear!" she called out the second the moonlight bathed her face. "You remember our deal?"
Buffy had agreed not to slay any of the former captives if they left town once they were freed from the Initiative complex. Not one complaint had been made. In fact, they were more than willing to get as far away from their place of captivity as possible.
Buffy had been shocked when a few of the vamps had even asked if she and Spike wanted to join them. She felt strangely flattered, and a little confused, by the offer and was more than happy to let Spike explain that they still had business in Sunnydale.
"What was all that about?" asked Buffy once everyone had gone their own way and she and Spike were heading back to Revello Drive.
"What?" asked Spike, flexing his fingers in their place on her waist, loosening the taut muscles of the slender digits.
"The whole 'You guys wanna come with' thing. Did they forget that I'm the Slayer?" she asked, wriggling slightly as his fidgeting fingers tickled her.
Spike smirked, storing away the 'tickly slayer' info for later use, and answered her question. "But you're not just a Slayer anymore, pet. You're a Master Vampire's Mate! No vamp in his right mind is gonna try and hurt you now!"
"And why is that?" she asked, a bit annoyed that she wouldn't get any good fights now.
"Vamps might be reckless, pet, but we ain't bloody suicidal."
"So, I won't get any more fights?" she whined, pouting.
Spike quickly twisted her in his arms, swooping in with his head and catching her pouty lip between his blunt, human, teeth. He kissed her soundly, almost completely knocking the breath out of her as the passion flared between them.
When he finally pulled back, remembering Buffy needed oxygen, Spike smiled at her warmly.
"Not to worry, love. Demons don't give a damn about vamps Mates. They'll still give you a few rounds." he paused as he thought for a few moments before adding. "And Fledglings ain't got a bloody clue about Mating bonds."
Spike grinned widely and Buffy smiled. A happy, almost giddy, bounce to her steps as she turned to continue the journey home.
As her house on Revello Drive finally came in to view, Spike began to pull back slightly. He kissed her cheek and tried to step away but Buffy suddenly had his hand in a vice like grip.
"Where do you think you're going?" she demanded.
Spike smiled, sadly and lowered his head slightly, avoiding her searching gaze. "Just gonna head home, pet. Don't wanna cause problems for you with your friends."
Buffy smiled at his attempted gesture but, instead of accepting it, she turned on her heel towards her house, practically dragging Spike along with her.
***
A group yelp rang out as Buffy threw open the front door and made her grand entrance into the living room. A quick scan revealed the scrying spell that was being attempted at the living room table and the weapons set against the nearest wall, ready to be grabbed the instant the spell gave a result.
"Hey guys!" said Buffy, a wide smile on her face. "We're home!"
"We?!" gasped everyone else, including Spike.
Buffy turned to face her friends, her smile still wide and genuine and her breathing calm as she told them everything that had happened.
"Spike saved me form the Initiative. They tried to turn me into a feeding frenzy for their starving captives. They Initiative is all gone now, I think, they were lunch instead of me. Oh, and Spike and I are Mates now. I probably should have told you that we're had a kind of thing going for a while now but you know now, that's what counts."
Giles opened his mouth to speak but Buffy was far from finished.
"For the record, Spike and I love each other so, if any of you have a problem with us being together, it's your problem, not ours, okay?"
A sea of shocked and dumbfounded faces shifted their gazes silently between Buffy and, the now grinning, Spike.
One by one, that same sea of shocked faces, broke out in to small smiles. First Tara and Dawn, then Anya, who wished them many happy orgasms, and then pondering if there was such a thing as an unhappy orgasm. Next was Willow who did the obligatory 'You hurt her, I'll hunt you down' threat that all good friends were apparently required by law, according to Dawn, to make.
Xander took a little longer to come around to the idea, especially after Spike's new 'chipless' status was revealed, but after Spike promised not to revert to his old ways, the younger male gave a curt nod, his way of giving his cautious blessing to what had already been decided between the two blondes.
It was at that point that Spike surprised them all. He asked that everyone, including himself, leave the room to let Buffy and Giles talk things through.
Buffy smiled in gratitude at his kind and thoughtful gesture and giggled slightly as she watched Dawn, fearless as always, link her arm through Spike's and preen away about how she had always wanted a big brother.
"…penned?"
Buffy snapped her head back round to face Giles who was looking at her expectantly. "Huh?"
Giles sighed heavily, removed his glasses and slowly cleaned them. "I asked; Were you given a choice in how this 'Mating' happened?"
"Yes." she replied, without hesitation. "He would have saved me, no matter what." she added. "He loves me, Giles."
Giles opened his mouth to speak but Buffy held up her hand towards him and interrupted. "And I love him too. Spike's been helping me stay sane since the others pulled me out of Heaven. He brought me back to myself and helped me to feel human again. He did all of that without a soul, so don't try to tell me that he's no good for me."
Buffy went to speak again but, this time, Giles interrupted her.
"All I've ever wanted was for you to be happy, Buffy. I can't say that I'm pleased that you've chosen Spike or that you've let him claim you as his Mate but, if he is who makes you happy…"
Giles got no further in his speech. He was cut off by the happy squeal of Buffy, who rushed him with a hug and the sudden reappearance of a giddy Dawn who, giggling, quickly joined in.
Spike stood in the living room doorway, giving his Mate all the time she wanted to celebrate with her friends acceptance of their relationship. He was half way through pondering about how many of them realised that Buffy was now, technically, his wife, when Xander clapped a cautious hand on his shoulder, causing the peroxide vampire to shift his gaze toward the younger male.
"I haven't seen her this happy in… Hell, I'm not sure if I've ever seen her this happy." Xander smiled warmly at the vampire beside him. "Thank you, Spike."
***
"He actually thanked you?" gasped Buffy as Spike tugged off her jeans.
"Uh huh." replied Spike quickly before dropping a few, well aimed, kisses to Buffy's inner thighs.
Buffy moaned in delight as Spike's naked body finally loomed over hers. She gasped as his shaft teased her lower lips while his mouth devoured her neck and shoulders, peppering them with trail blazing, heat provoking kisses. A silent scream of pleasure erupted from her when he surged his hips forward, sheathing himself fully within her warm depths.
A growl rumbled from deep within his chest, the word "MINE!" hissing from his lips as he pounded them towards oblivion.
"YOURS!" Buffy gasped as her entire body began to quake from his sinfully amazing ministrations. Her orgasm washing over her like a tidal wave, seeming to cleanse her of all she once was, clearing the way for all that she could now become.
As her body and mind finally reunited, Buffy could still feel Spike's, now frantic, pace within her. However, the overwhelming feeling that something was missing sent her teeth piercing through the flesh of his neck, the word "MINE!" slipping from her lips less than a second before impact.
"YOURS!" bellowed Spike into the sex filled air of her bedroom as he erupted deeply within her, his seed coating every inner inch of her being. "Always, pet! Always yours!"
"Good." giggled Buffy sleepily as she snuggled against him and drifted off to sleep, content to remain exactly as they were.
As Spike watched his slumbering Mate, he couldn't help but send up a small thanks to whoever might have been listening. He had no idea what he could have done to deserve having Buffy as his Mate but he would be forever grateful to whoever had given him to chance at such an honour.
He would also be eternally grateful that Dawn had decided to stay over at a friends house tonight.
The End
