A Heart without Remorse

Intro: I wrote a similar chapter ages ago couldn't remember much because my disk got wiped so I apologise if anyone who read it before is confused!!! The content may differ.

Disclaimer: Joss Whedon owns all. My own interpretation of characters and the writing style is entirely mine. Sorry if there are any critical mistakes in plot, please correct me in a review. Thanks!

Prologue

Sun kissed blonde hair framed a pair of big hazel eyes that peeped over the bedclothes. She sat up as if sensing something, to the casual observer the girl seemed fragile. But thus becoming a severe understatement when she had a stake pointing at your heart. Buffy wasn't pretty, she was beautiful, radiating with a hidden power...a deep sense of purpose. Most people live their life not knowing what fate held for them, she knew. It was simple, she lived and she would die fighting the things commonly beheld as evil. But it was a case of when.

Her eyes pierced the darkness, the veil of night hinting at but shadows. Buffy was now out of bed and moving down the stairs the light tattoo of her bare feet was a distant memory as she cleared the last three steps in one swift leap. Crouching now, Buffy scanned the room. Nothing. From the kitchen came a sound, like wind whistling through a cavernous cave with no other sound but your own heart beat.

The kitchen door was ajar admitting a biting and unforgiving blast of air. Buffy shivered and stepped out into the night. Her gauzy nightgown trembled in the wind and in her wake she left flowers and grass alike trampled. At the end of the garden she stopped. A voice issued from behind the tree.

"Up early pet, I think it's way passed your bed time" Whispered Spike flicking the butt of his cigarette to the floor making a few blades of grass sizzle at his feet.

"Don't play games with me Spike!" spat Buffy stepping closer and pointing an accusing finger in his chest.

"Games!!" he laughed, it was a deep guttural sound, and cruel even "You'd know all about games wouldn't you Buffy? You're not the only one with feelings you know. Always playing with people's affections, blowing hot and cold like a pot of bloody tea...Just hot and cold then. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh" He screamed suddenly dropping to his knees in the damp earth.

His vision swam and he saw her. He knelt before a woman; she smiled wickedly. Crimson blood spilled from lips pale as death as was her complexion, her eyes like black pools except without depth they were hollow.

"It's burns doesn't it Spike, your soul. You feel tormented and you wish death would take you. You're not good enough for that though are you? A waking nightmare, the lives you took scream, claw in vain to escape, trapped. Now they want yours. They want to manipulate, tear and torment it. But it's also trapped within this vampire body a mere shell, but a shell that could spill the blood of your loved ones. The ones your soul feels bonded with, especially the Chosen One,"

She laughed now, high pitched and piercing. The woman reached out with a hand ending in blood red nails, she seemed to reach into his being and gripped his soul like a vice.