TITLE- Cry "Havoc"...
AUTHOR- Buffitude
DISCLAIMER- Joss's except for those that aren't.
RATING- R, Language, sexual situations
PAIRING- some B/S, some others
SUMMARY- Sometime after Smashed...
Feedback/ oh, why not
-
The night was warm; a gentle breeze rustled the leaves of the tree he stood beneath, allowing the moonlight to play over him. The cherry back-glow of the cigarette he was smoking illuminated his inhumanly beautiful face briefly as he inhaled. Blowing out smoke in a sigh of breath, he sucked in another breath through his mouth. Tasting the breeze, relishing the scents stirring in it.
It made his demon stir. The scent of warm living humans. Humans and correspondingly, blood. And to the demon within, blood was all.
He narrows his eyes as he surveys the house before him, but sees no movement and glances up at the evening sky, calculating time with the movement of the constellations. He really needs to get a watch. It looked like Dawn wasn't making with the houdini tonight, so he may as well head back to the crypt for some late night telly. The bit could manage to get herself in a lot of trouble; he shook his head ruefully. He'd been making sure she kept home at night.
He had hoped the Slayer would show she'd been avoiding him since their last bout of mind numbing sex. They weren't finished, he smiled darkly, it wasn't over, he promised silently staring at the house.
He turned to leave, dropping the cigarette to the ground, crushing it under his heel. Sauntering off hands in pockets, his black leather duster swirling around him. He'd walked five blocks in the residential area when he felt something. He silently halted, surveying the night surrounding him. Something pulling at him, an invisible force. A compulsion?
"Bloody hell, now what?" he sullenly wondered aloud.
Trying to ignore the prickling sensation in his head, he continued forward to the turn off into the cemetery. The further he walked, the stronger the unpleasant sensation became. He staggered to a standstill, shuddering, waging a silent war for his own control. The compulsion made it impossible to think clearly. His demon shifting to the fore, he snarled, outraged at the magics being used against him. Sodding Hellmouth, a bloke never knew what magics were lurking around to grab him.
Fighting every step unwillingly led to a two-story Victorian in the old neighborhood. The house appeared to be in poor repair, but it was occupied. By humans, if the small feminine figure standing on the second level balcony was any indication. Her long hair seemed to have life of it's own as it lifted in the breeze, snaking around the woman's body and head. Blowing around her upturned face, the moonlight bathing her features in its silver illumination. Beautiful features, Spike was startled to see. Young features, he noted.
The compulsion was on him full force, a buzzing in his head disorienting him. Shaking his head he staggered forward. Compelled. Commanded. NO! He falls to the ground, digging his fingers into the earth of the bare yard of the dwelling. COME. The force beckoned. NO! The annoying buzzing becomes a roar. He climbed slowly to his feet, lurching toward the house... The roaring easing to a buzz, then to a prickling in his head once again.
Ahhh. Compulsion spell, then.
Angry and curious he takes hold of a pole running up the side of the house. Hand over hand, hauled himself up to the balcony. Rolling over the balcony railing and coming up in a crouch, freezing in place. Every sense he possessed trained on the woman standing at the other end of the balcony. Preternatural night vision revealed the exquisite beauty of the woman's' face. High cheek bones large silver grey eyes with finely arched brows. Smooth ivory complexion, sculpted lips. Her slightly pointed chin lending an elvin, alien aspect to her beauty.
His eyes roamed her face and her form, traveling to her rapidly rising chest. In, out, in, out .Her breathing a soothing rhythm in the night. Spikes' eyes narrowed, nostrils flared to breathe her scent. He was on the hunt. Tasting the air, the scent of her heady, spicy. Shakes his head, not good, he acknowledges on some level of his brain.
She stood, still as prey being stalked, hugging herself, watching him. Eyes wide, pupils dilated as if she wasn't sure she was seeing him. In a sudden movement, she flung herself at him. Hurtling her body at him like a right tackle on a football field. He half rose from his crouch to meet the human missile launching at him. He grunted in his chest at the impact, arms coming around her to steady them and keep them from sprawling backward into the rotted balcony railing.
A crackling blue web of electrical-magical-Energy began to shimmer over their entwined bodies. A blue maelstrom of energy whirling and whipping over the pair on the balcony. Standing in the circle of his arms, the woman, no, girl, he decides, raises her face to him and looks into his eyes.
Spike... , a sigh in his mind.
Great. Another sodding witch talking in his bloody head!
You are here... the voice sighs sweetly in his mind.
"WHO are you? You don't know who you are dealin' with luv...let me go", Spike snarled as he felt her arms slip around his waist. The blue energy was singing in his head, in his blood. The nearness of the girl in his arms making him unable to think clearly. She wiggled closer, flattening herself to mold to him. Spice, warmth-blood singing to him, just for him. He felt his face shift, fangs descend.
You came for me.. She gazed into his saffron, blazing eyes unafraid of his metamorphosis. Something moved in Spike then, like a kaleidoscope, pieces snapping into place. An urge as deep and primal as the human need to breathe. "My blood to yours..", he began, the odd ritual words coming unbidden to him, part of the compulsion. She raised her lips to his, his mouth coming down hard on hers. Her hands in his hair. The growling deep in his chest becoming a song of need as she pulled her mouth from his, forcing his head down, lips and teeth against her pulse.
He doesn't hesitate but buries fangs deep. She was warm, so warm he groaned savagely pulling her closer. Sweet, spicy, innocent blood flooded his mouth, his throat and his being. It had been long since he had fed from a living human. His demon roared. For a fleeting instant, he loved the human chalice from which he drank, lost in the pleasure of the moment. There was no time, no space, no thought. The blue energy whined to a higher pitch.
Maelyn. Spike knows her name. He tore his mouth from the white column of her throat, the alabaster alter where he but moments ago, worshipped. And there was no pain. Why was there no pain? His chip. He staggered back into the outside wall of the house dragging the girl with him. Her heart beat weak and thready, head lolling back weakly as she opens her eyes to look up at him, no fear or accusation in her gaze. Spike... , a smile on her lips.
Confused, Spike smoothes her hair from her face, in a strangely tender gesture, from the one who drained her to the point of death. The energy flow surrounding them has turned blue white and was screaming...Screaming. Spike looked down at the beautiful upturned face, drawn by powers stronger than he; he bared his throat, carelessly gashing a bloody rip with his own fingers. "You have to drink now." her murmured. She was too weak, Spike raised the girls lovely face with a hand to the back of her head placing her mouth on his throat, her lips work as his blood flows out of him, she bites down hard, making him flinch. He could feel her drawing from him and felt a deep satisfaction.
-
He moved her, shifting her into his lap as his knees buckled and he slowly slid down the wall until he was sitting on the balcony's' floor. Holding the now still girl across his lap, against his chest he dazedly tried to make sense out of what had just happened. The blue energy vortex that had surrounded them spun itself out. Falling out like a dust devil in an arid field, until the crackling that remained was no more than a slight static charge.
What the hell...Spike thinks frantically? Mother Of Christ! He'd made a fledgling! Staring at the face of the girl in his arms, amazed. The Slayer's going to ram a redwood through me for this one. He glances at the sky seeing the approaching dawn; more time had passed than he'd been aware. He needed to get a watch, he decided.
Lifting the fledgling into a better position he rose from the floor. Leaping the railing, dropping to the ground below. He breaks into a run, swiftly, with all the grace and speed innate to his kind, he dodged obstacles in the prelight of dawn making for the safety of his crypt. No sense in combusting over the episode, he thought practically. Although, Buffy was probably going to turn him into Mr. Big Pile of Bloody Dust over it.
Slamming the door open, he staggers in and kicks it closed behind him. Steam that rose from him dissipating in the darkness of the crypt. Gathering his thoughts he looked at the limp form in his arms. Better put'er to bed, then. No sense in giving her the 'wig' anymore than necessary, remembering his own frantic escape from his grave. And Buffys' escape from hers, his blue eyes darkening further at the memory of shocked, vacant eyes and torn hands.
-
Spike stood near the bed looking at his handiwork, running a hand through his platinum hair, mussing it and leaving behind curls, in place of the gelled spikiness he wore like armor. The girl lay in the stillness of death. No breath, heartbeat stopped, utterly beautiful. How old was she, He wondered. Eighteen? Twenty? Barely older than Dawn.
A childe. He had Sired a childe. Something he'd done only once before in his entire existence. He shook his head to dispel the memory of the disappointment of that ill-fated foray. By the time Darla and Angelus were done playing with the fledgling vampire, it was probably a relief that Angelus staked it out for the sun to take, stating he wasn't feeding another idiot childe. Spike snorted at that. No one could blame Drucilla on him. Angelus always took every opportunity to make him acknowledge him as the Alpha male. It always turned into some kind of pissing contest with them. He never wanted the responsibility after that and it was never really all that important in the decades that followed.
His fledgling lay in repose on the scarlet satin bed cover. Her dark sable hair was shot through with gold highlights, which shimmered in the candlelight. A slow smile spread his lips, curling them into a darkly sardonic expression, turning his face from pensive to sensually cruel. Vampire relations being what they are...this may be ...neat, he thinks to himself.
-
"BLOODY HELL! What was I thinking? ", He raged, pacing up and down the length of the floor, clutching the bottle of whiskey in his fist. Something akin to panic blossoming in his breast."Damn, damn, damn!" Was the litany that spilled from his lips.
Spike, her voice whispers in his head. He stops and whirls toward the ladder that leads below to his chambers.
How do you do that, eh? Red's the only other who could get in my head, can't say that I like it much. he snapped, Get out of my head, pet. It's not polite. Spike sent to her as he descended into the lower rooms. Striding to the bed, he sat on the edge
"You're awake early, most don't wake for a day or so." he commented. " So how're you feeling, then?" he asks his fledgling as she yawned and stretched on his coverlet.
I'm starving.., She began.
"Ah-ah, with words, not in my head.' Spike warned with a wag of his finger. She smiled shyly at him and he reached out and seized her by the chin, tipping her silver-grey eyes to meet his midnight blue ones.
"How old are you, pet?" he asked quietly.
"Seventeen." Maelyn answered simply.
Spike snatched his hand away as if she had bit him, staring at her, with a growing anger.
"God, I amMr. Big Pile Of Dust" He gritted through clenched teeth, thinking of what Buffy would do when she heard thatpiece of information. Hell, she won't hear about any of this from him!
"Spike..." she sighed, and he felt a flood of need emanating from the girl lying in his bed, he angled his head down to look at her from the corner of his eye.
"Who are you..What are you, that you can do this" He gestured to his own head with his two fingers in a semi-salute. A sudden glint of suspicion in his eyes, he leaned menacingly toward her,
"You aren't Romany.?...Because I already have a soddin' chip in my head..No curses for this chap, thanks."
"Please, I want...' she stopped unsure of what the need burning in her veins required, turning pleading eyes to the vampire on the bed next to her. Spike lifts her into his embrace. She twines her lithe arms around his neck, nestling her lips in the hollow of his throat. Biting, ...Spike threw his head back and groans deeply as his fledgling fed. Sparks of blue rising, swirling around them.
-
Spike lay on the bed, pillows propped behind him, Maelyn draped across his body like a blanket. He idly smoothed her hair, petting down its' length, to curl the ends around his fingers. He drains the mug and set it on the bedside table, before drawing her closer, and sliding into slumber.
BOOM!
The door slams open upstairs, jarring Spike awake.
"SPIKE", Dawn calls out as she enters the crypt.
Got to get a lock on that door. He gently slides the sleeping girl onto the coverlet, and leapt for the stairs. He speeds up the ladder, catching Dawn at the top, looking down at him. "What are you doin' here, Bit" Spike inquires as he climbed out of the downstairs chamber.
"Well, don't go acting glad to see me on my account or anything..." Dawn pouted, hurt written on her expressive young face. Spike raised an eyebrow, taking hold of Dawns' elbow, guiding her to the sofa. She sits down in a flouncing motion, curling her legs under her. Moving to the mini-fridge, Spike opened it. "Diet Coke? Guinness? O-Positive", his voice calls to Dawn.
"Guinness, please", Dawn replies hopefully. A can of Diet Coke sails through the air toward her, she catches it, shooting Spike a dirty look. Spike smirked at her, raising his now open bottle of beer in a salute, before drinking.
"So, Dawn. Did we have a playdate today? It must have slipped my mind.", another drink, and a edgy glance toward the opening in the floor, flicking his gaze back to Dawn. Dawn frowned, noticing Spikes' odd behavior.
"I thought maybe we could hang out, watch soaps or something." She answered. They had spent a lot of time doing just that in those terrible days of loneliness that had followed Buffs' leap that saved the world.
"Ditch school again, pet? You know big sis will track you down and then..." Spike trailed off, a look spreading on his face that looked suspiciously like panic. "Bit, you gotta go. Go home. Now." Spike grabbed her up from the sofa and herded her toward the door. Dawn stumbles; clutching her can of soda, spilling it as Spike nearly yanks her across the room.
"Spike! Stop it! What's wrong with you! Hey, damn it, wait" Dawns' voice going from confused to pissed in the time it takes to get from the sofa to the crypts' door.
"Language, niblett, language!" Spike admonishes her absently as he yanks the door open...
And sees Buffy.
Buggar that! He slams the door shut. Leans against it, banging his head on it with his eyes shut. Dawn gapes at him.
Buffy stands with her hands on her hips outside the crypts entrance, blinking. Did Spike just slam the door in her face? Suddenly, the door is ripped back open; Dawn thrust out of it practically on top of Buffy, Spikes' face briefly visible as he dodged the sunlight, slamming the door shut again. Buffy and her sister gawk at each other, then back at the door.
"Ok, I knew I'd find you here, Dawn. You can't just skip school to come here and hang out with Spike! We talked about this." exasperation evident in the very lines of her body. "What's up with Spike" Buffy nods toward the door.
"I don't know" Dawn shrugged expressively"He was acting weird the whole time I was inside..Do I have to go to school? I've already missed first period." She pleaded with her sister, looking into her face and seeing no reprieve.
"YES! I 'll write you a note."
And I'll find out what's going on with Spike, she silently added as she watched her sister stomp off toward school.
-
Spike leaned against the door, then looked down at his hands, realizing he is still gripping the bottle of beer. He takes a long drink, pushing away from the door and moves with unnatural swiftness to the lower chamber. The girl is lying on the bed, feeling her forehead and teeth with curious fingers. Spike paused to watch the fledgling taking in her new accoutrements, cocking his head slightly to the side, amused, smiling to himself.
'Coool" Maelyn grinned up at him, 'let me see yours." Spike smiles slowly and shifted into game face, gazing at her with yellow blazing eyes. She flowed off the bed approaching him. Stopping in front of him, she reached her hand up to his face, laying her palm against his cheek in a tender gesture. "You are so beautiful.' she whispered admiringly.
This startled Spike, not used to this reaction to the demons' face. He looked down into her earnest face and sucked in an unwarranted breath. Her eyes, her eyes were the same silver -grey color. What kind of demon...? He shook himself mentally"Hungry again, pet" at her expression, he knew he had hit the mark. "Right then, I'll get you a warm mug, be back in a sec."
"Mug? Wait...couldn't we...you could." she looked at him, come hither written all over her beautiful face. Spikes' eyes darkened at the invitation, strolling to the edge of the bed, he slowly slid one knee onto the coverlet. The fledgling met him halfway, dragging his head down to her, meeting his lips with her own. Spike roughly takes her head between his hands and pulls her mouth from his, kissing a trail down her jawline to her neck. She shifts and in a quick, startling move sinks her fangs deep, drawing blood from her Sire in greedy draughts. Spike tightened his grip on her and they fall to the bed. Soon her feeding had become less frantic, and he pulled her from him, rolling on top of her. Pinning her to the bed, arms over her head imprisoning her wrists in one hand. Blue lights flickered over them.
"Ok, baby" Spikes' smooth whiskey voice speaks in a caress"You are going to tell me some things. What is this..'"Gesturing randomly" this electric light display. And how'd you know me? Before." he looked into her sated eyes, compelling her to talk.
I 've always known you. In my dream, and awake. You've been with me." Maelyns' honeyed voice flowed into his mind.
"Are you a witch? Was it a Summoning? Or a Compulsion." Spike frowns trying to put a finger on it.
"Nooo, I'm just a girl." not understanding what he was getting at. Spike chuckles throatily.
"Hardly that, what with all the noise in my head when you are talking to me." he responded, moving his hand from her wrists to touch her cheek.
"OH" she said in understanding. She covered the back of Spikes' hand with her own, holding it to her face; suddenly he could feel her filling him. Her essence spilling into his mind, and he felt himself greedily sucking it into himself as he would blood. She was in him, around him and he closed his eyes laying his head on her breast. Suddenly as it began, she was gone, only a trace of her like a scent left behind. A small white light in the back of his mind.
Shaken to the core, he raised his head looking at her, and rawly whispered " What have I wrought?" staring down at her with stricken eyes.
-
BOOM!
The door slams open upstairs.
Note to self, get a bloody lock on that damned door.
Spike rolled off the bed, coming to his feet. Maelyn sat straight up on the bed, questioning look in her eyes. A quick look, a "stay here", and a snatched up double-bladed axe, and he was gone up the ladder steps. Spike, what is it? the frantic girl fairly shouted in his head.
Spike winced, Tone it down. I'll check it out, baby, just stay where you are., forgetting about the impulsiveness of the young.
Buffy looked at the TV, which was off. Odd. Spike was a die-hard "Passions" fan; he rarely missed a chance to watch it, even braving daylight excursions to her house when his TV was on the blink. She glanced over to the hole in the floor out from which Spike flew, in a defensive stance, holding an axe in a firm grip. Buffy raised an eyebrow, fully expecting him to relax and disarm when seeing her. Instead she was treated to Spike shifting into a classic fighting stance, whirling the axe in silver arcs across his body in offensive patterning.
"Spike" rolling her eyes"it's only me."
"I see you. Now, what do you want, Slayer" he responded crisply. Buffy frowned; this was a new development.
"Look Mr. Grouchy Pants, I'm sorry Dawn woke you, but you are going to have to tell her she can't skip school to come over here. She'll listen to you. She just fights with me these days." Buffy sighed. Is he going to put down that axe any time soon? He slowly stands it in the corner against the wall, and walks toward Buffy. Carefully keeping himself between her and the "rabbit hole" as she liked to call the entrance to the lower chamber.
"Good idea, tell the bit she can't come here for...oh, say a week. Ya know, she's grounded-like" Spike throws out, thinking quickly how long before fledglings are halfway safe to be around without them tearing the throat out of every bloodbearing person.
"Spike" Buffy says, shifting gears in the conversation"What's going on. You've been on edge since you, oh, SLAMMED THE DOOR IN MY FACE! What's up with that"
"Uh..." Spike began, when he hears the fledgling clear her throat behind him. Bloody Hell!
Buffy stares slack-jawed at the beautiful, young, emphasis on young here, she thinks; girl standing behind Spike. He whirls around, one arm behind him blocking the girls' path, palm on her stomach holding her in place, he cast a look at the Slayer from under lowered brows. "Buffy, get out, now." he grinded out from behind clenched teeth.
Maelyn peeped around Spikes' shoulder, curiosity written on her face"Who's that, Spike?'
Buffy felt numbness creeping in to fill a place in her heart she didn't know was there.
"Yes, Spike, who is that" Sweetly throwing the words at him like rocks.
-
BANG!
The door to the crypt slammed open.
All three pairs of eyes flew to the disheveled figure that flung himself inside Spikes' abode. Panting, looking around, he spied Buffy, Spike and a very young girl, frozen in a confrontational tableau.
"Buffy, is everything ok? I've been waiting in the car and you've been in here for..." the young man' eyes widened"Hey! What's going on" he demanded.
"Spike, are you poaching at the elementary school again? Hand her over, Peroxide guy." Xander sarcastically flung at the agitated inhabitant of the crypt. "Buffy, you take Spike, I'll grab the kid." he spilled out in a rush, eyes flashing.
Rage flared behind Spikes' eyes. Roaring, with game face in place, he charged Xander intent on pulverizing him on the spot. The chip busted him to his knees. Buffy grabbed him by his bare shoulders, tossing him to the sofa where he lay still, dazed by the chips' response to his murderous attempt on Xander. The fledglings' eyes locked on Xander. Her beautiful face filled with an unholy hunger.
Spike, I'm hungry. starting toward Xander, who is frozen in uncertainty at the look on her face. Spike struggles off the sofa, and makes it to intercept her before she was half way to her intended meal. He clamps his arms around her, trying to still her struggles, finally lifting her off the floor as she shrieked her rage at being thwarted. Buffy and Xander stare in horror as this vision of beauty turns into a hunger- crazed vampire fledgling.
A stake springs from nowhere, into the Slayers hand.
Spike struggles with the girl, turning her in his embrace until her face is pressed to his chest. Soothing sounds coming from his throat, crooning "That's my girl, that's my pet." Fangs sink deep. "Feed, it's alright, luv." Blue flames and sparks swirl around them in a maelstrom of glowing electric light. A subliminal humming is heard, growing louder, more shrill. Spikes' head strains backward, vocal chords strained in a silent cry.
They are melded. Mind to mind neither knowing where one began, where the other ended. Time fell away and Spike felt peace through his entire being, and she was there with him ...in heaven? No, never him, he thought. But it is close, it is enough.
Xander shielded his eyes from the blue-white light swirling around the two figures. Buffy grasps his arm"What IS that? What is happening? Xander, we have to get him out of that" she shouted over the shrieking energy field.
As slowly as it started, the energy dissipated, leaving Spike clasping a limp form to his chest. He gazed dazedly into her eyes"Bloody Hell." he says before falling backward into the wall, dragging the girl with him. He felt Buffy prying his arms away from Maelyn. What? Where..? He could hear Buffy saying "Xander help me get her away from him. They are both out and we need to get them downstairs."
"NO! Harris, get away." he growls, his voice barely above a whisper. Rolling to his side trying to cover the girl in the protection of his own body.
"Spike, it's ok. I'll take care of you." he heard Buffy in the distance, down a long tunnel. Fell down the bloody rabbit hole, he thought. Then darkness.
Buffy turned to Xander"He doesn't want you to touch her, I'll do this." at Xanders doubtful look she continued. "I'll be ok. Considering how she reacted to you maybe you better go. And call Willow... No, call a Scooby meeting. I'll meet you at the Magic Box when I'm done here." Then getting his aquiesance, she turned back to the two still figures lying on the floor.
-
Spike wakes to a touch on his shoulder, stares into Buffys' face blearily, wondering why she was there. She'd never stayed before after a bout of 'monster wrestling' as she so euphemistically called their sexual encounters. Buffy slipped an arm under his shoulders helping him to sit upright, holding a mug to his lips. "Drink it, Spike. I need you awake." she said in a perfunctory tone of voice.
"Still up for a go, then, luv" he mumbled against the cup held to his lips, before drinking the contents completely to the bottom of the mug. "Hardly." she snorted"Spike, wake up" she shook him. The mug of blood reviving him, he sat bolt upright in the bed.
"Christ" he frantically looked around for Maelyn, upon spotting her resting on the other side of the bed, rolled over and gently lifted her into his embrace, settling them both against the head of the bed. Satisfied that she wasn't injured, relieved she wasn't dust, he turned to face Buffy. Buffy sat on a chair she had dragged up to the side of the bed, completely unaware of her hands wringing nervously in her lap
"Are you going to tell me what's going on, Spike." she inquired. Her voice deceptively soft, dangerous. Spike took in her face. The face of the face of the young woman he'd loved for the space of the last two years and wondered where to start.
-
"So, you're telling me that you've made a fledgling vampire, that she is ..what..Telepathic? And you don't know what the hell that blue tornado in your living room was" , her voice beginning to raise in anger, her hands making short, choppy motions as she paced the length of the chamber."Spike, how could you! She's way too young, she's probably Dawns' age, you ...pervert" Buffy spat at him.
Indignant, Spike sputtered defensively" Is not! She's seventeen. That's older than Dawn"
"Oh, like that two year difference, makes any difference", Buffy sneered"Spike, I should stake you" stopping in her tracks a thought occurs"Why didn't your chip prevent this" she demanded gesturing toward the girl still unconscious in his embrace. "It stopped you from taking Xanders' head off"
At the mention of Xander, Maelyn stirred Spike, I don't like him...I heard him, he doesn't like you. Spike glanced at the girls' still form in his arms. This bloody mind reading may be a decent advantage after all.
Buffy noticed a faraway look on his face and said "What? What is it"
"Maelyn doesn't like Harris. Can't say that I blame her." Spike smirked at Buffy sardonically. "Sit up, pet. Meet Buffy all proper-like.' he smiled into the girls' face as she sat up.
Buffy edges warily to the end of the bed"I'm Buffy..." before she could finish a voice like silken honey flowed into her mind.
I know who you are, Spike is in love with you, you are in his mind..." The fledgling smiled at her brightly.
"Get out of my head" Buffy yelled, glaring outraged at the girl.
"Now pet, I told you remember? It's not polite to go into peoples' heads like that." Spike admonished, sparing a dark look for Buffy for yelling at the girl.
Buffy explained more kindly"I got an aspect of a demon that I slayed once, it wasn't pleasant for me...just don't do that to me, ok" Looking at Spike to see if he noticed her effort and was rewarded with his slight nod.
"I'm sorry, sorry... I forget.", the vampire girl stuttered.
"It's alright, Maelyn, you just gotta try and remember, pet." Spike smoothed her hair in the petting motion that was rapidly becoming a habit.
"Have you always been able to do that" Buffy asked curiously, feeling awkward talking to the young vampire. I usually kill her kind as they dig their way out of the grave, she mused.
"Uh, no" she shook her head" It started with Spike, I thought it would be only with him...I didn't know I could do it with you..." Maelyn leveled an odd look at Buffy who was standing uncomfortably at the foot of the bed. She's nice, Spike
Not when you get to know herhis amused voice told her. Maelyn elbowed him in the chest. Buffy knew she had witnessed some silent by-play between them and shifted her balance to stand firmly on both legs.
"Spike, see me out. I have to go to the Magic Box." Buffy turned to go. Looking over her shoulder "Bye, Maelyn." she said rather grudgingly.
-
Spike went to the mini-fridge and snagged a bag out, ripping it open with his teeth, in no mood to wait. Dumping its' contents into a mug, he shoved it into the microwave, ignoring the pissed off Slayer leaning against the wall next to him. At the bell, he yanked open the door and grabbed the mug lifting it to his lips he drained it in the peculiar no breathing swallowing way that vampires have. Licking a stray droplet of ruby liquid from his lower lip, he stared boldly at Buffy. Attitude back in place"What."
"Spike, she's going to be dangerous, to my friends, to Dawn. What was this anyway? Another Buffybot, a playtoy for Spike" She taunted.
"Get over yourself, luv." he smirked, eyes twinkling.
"I mean it Spike. If she makes a move on anyone, like she did Xander today, I'll make her go "poof", and you'll have to use a dustbuster..." she was stopped by an incredibly brassed off Spike.
Hand on her neck, his body pinning her to the wall"You, any of you, try to hurt her, it'll be the last time you breathe." he whispered in her ear, his voice silken with deadly promise. She swallowed carefully.
Spike, stop that, play niceMaelyns' voice admonished him, making him jump guiltily.
He let go of Buffy, ashamed of his involuntary instinct to protect the girl in the lower room. Looking at Buffy, he tentatively touched her cheek"Slayer..." he began. Buffy closed her eyes and turned her head away from him. He pushed himself away from her in a smooth motion, running his had through his hair, mussing it.
"Look, Buffy. Give me a week. She'll be presentable, I promise. It's just the newly made ones are ravenous all the time...she won't be a danger once she gets some control in a few days" he earnestly entreated her.
"SPIKE! How can you say that?You can't just willy-nilly feed her any Tom, Dick or Xander that comes around! She is a danger. She doesn't have a chip unlike you..." she started to finish but was interrupted.
"Chip, no. Soul yes."
Buffy froze her eyes boring into him"What are you talking about"
"She has a soul. I don't know what happened, or how but she's' got one, big as brass. It's meshed with the demon somehow, I saw it during the second time we.." he gesticulated in a whirling motion over his head" you know, the bluelight special. She'll be right in a few days, when the First Hunger has passed. I remember back in the day how I was" a fond look coming into his eyes" bloody slaughtered half a block of families before I could control..." he stopped realizing that the Slayer was less than impressed with his little narrative.
"I can feed her. It usually isn't done except in extreme circumstances..." thinking back to when Dru took care of him when that blasted organ fell on him" during hard times. No nipping on anyone but me when she gets peckish."
"It'll be fine, you have my promise, trust me" Spike spoke to her quietly.
"With Dawns' life." she replied, knowing that would truly mean something to him since he loved Dawn like a little sister. A Bratty, Annoying little sister, she amended.