The sun was setting and Willow stared blankly out the curtained window in her room across the hall from Buffy's. She was twitchy and had been since what happened those few nights ago. She hadn't seen Spike since he . . . drank from her. Although when she woke up the next morning, she had found a note stuck to her window. It was a thank-you note from Spike. She presumed it was for the booze, but he hadn't specified or tried to contact her since. Willow figured he felt ashamed, she wasn't Buffy. Why would he want her? He hadn't even made a cameo since then. Dawn kept pestering everybody about it, but none of them seemed to mind. Xander was overjoyed that "Dead Boy Jr." hadn't made an appearance in a few days. Buffy had returned home from LA that morning, looking happy, but with that undercurrent of sadness that only Angel seemed to be able to bring up in her.
"Helloo? Earth to Willow! Come downstairs! Buffy brought some yummy pizza! My half has anchovies!" Dawn poked her head in Willow's room and nearly gave the spacey witch a heart attack. As she came out of her internal rabble, she realized the sun's position was closer to setting than it had been what felt like seconds earlier. She nervously kneaded her hands together and stood to follow the hyperactive teen down the stairs. Her heart fluttered anxiously, dreading when the sun would set. She knew Spike would show up tonight, he could sense Buffy from a mile away. No matter how much she denied him, he'd keep persistent. Poor fool.
Rubbing her temples from the magic withdraw headache that had started up with a vengeance an hour earlier, Willow made her way down the stairs and into the living room. Everybody was buzzing around with plates, soda, and pizza. Giles and his new girlfriend even showed up. Xander and Anya had claimed the space on the floor around a game board, along with Dawn and Buffy. They were playing Clue. Willow figured Anya had picked the game tonight. It was a usual Friday night. Since Buffy had come back and recovered, she wanted to have one night of complete normalcy for Dawnie. It was a much needed night for everybody though.
"Willster! I saved you some pizza before the pizza monster came and ate it all," Xander said with a grin as he gestured towards Dawn. She stuck her tongue out at him and took a huge bite of anchovy pizza, smearing marinara sauce around her mouth. Willow mustered up a weak grin and went into the kitchen to get some Tylenol and a soda. She leaned against the counter for a moment and was surprised when she looked up and found a certain Brit leaning against the wall across from her.
"Spike! You scared me. W-what are you doing here?" She asked him, clearly curious as to why he'd want to come over now of all times, with all of the Scooby Gang converged in Buffy's house for the night. He grinned at his ability to still scare people sometimes and shrugged, walking past her to root through the Summers' fridge.
"It is game night. The lil Bit always bugs me about not showing up, so I figured I'd make an appearance, at least until one of your lot kicks me out." He found the alcohol stash he'd kept in there from when he stayed over more often and opened up a beer. Willow was about to complain about him drinking in front of Dawn, but she figured he'd finish it before going into the other room. She just nodded and started to head out of the kitchen. Spike's firm grip on her arm halted her.
"What? No discussion about how wrong I was to drink from you? No telling me to never mention it again? Or did you actually enjoy it?" Spike asked her with a sick grin plastered on his face. She made a face at him and yanked her hand back, but he made sure she knew it was because he let her.
"Spike, just stop ok? Not now, I'm going in there and we are not talking about this," Willow replied as she walked away from him, glancing back at him as he laughed. He sure knew how to psychologically attack people. Spike finished off his drink and followed the witch into the other room. Buffy immediately tensed up when her Slayer senses picked up on his presence, but Dawn squealed and attacked the vampire with a hug. This drew a roomful of shocked and puzzled looks from everybody, but Dawn paid no attention to them. Spike froze at first, but awkwardly patted the girl as she squeezed him.
"Guess it's a good thing I don't need to breathe, eh, Nibblet?" He teased and she blushed and stepped back. Of course then she started harassing him for not showing up. The poor guy looked a bit overwhelmed, but Dawn had that effect on people. Buffy glared from where she was now leaning against the wall, she had moved there the second Dawn had gotten anywhere near Spike.
"Ok Dawn can we not hug the icky vampire?" Buffy asked with a dramatic sigh. A brief look of hurt passed over Spike's face, and Willow wouldn't have even noticed if she hadn't been paying attention, but it was quickly replaced by a cocky grin. Dawn rolled her eyes and told Spike he wasn't icky.
Spike lasted about an hour before he said something that ended in him being kicked out. Of course Xander had instigated it, but Spike was still blamed and he left, claiming he "didn't want to be stuck with you wankers anyways." Somehow, Willow found herself discussing magic with Giles' girlfriend, Lilly. As Buffy, Xander, and Anya went to work cleaning up the remnants of game night, her and Lilly talked about their favorite spells and magical ingredients.
"Oh, hell! That reminds me, Willow could you stop by the Magic Box and pick up a few texts I left there? I need them for an item I recently acquired. Quite frankly I don't exactly know what it is." Willow agreed to do so, and he handed her a list and the keys to the store and she was off. It was a mild night in Sunnydale, and her light jacket was fine for the weather, and for stowing away a few stakes within the pockets. She walked briskly, as would any Sunnydale native unlucky enough to be outside at night by themselves. Of course immediately after realizing this, Willow became a bit frightened, which was ridiculous since she had helped kill some demons a few nights ago. Well, a demon, but there was no need to get technical.
Upon seeing the familiar building, Willow heaved a sigh in relief. She just needed to get in, grab the books, and get out, but of course, her life was never that simple. As she nearly jogged across the street to the Magic Box, she tripped on her skirt and tumbled down. It wasn't a bad fall besides the fact that when she caught herself with her hands, the wound from the other night re-opened and spilled blood down her hand again. It was never good to be bleeding at night in Sunnydale. Willow cursed and stood up, hoping she had something in her purse to hold pressure against her gash. Before she could get there, a pale, cold hand stopped her. Willow's heart leapt into her throat and she readied a scream that never came, mostly because a hand went to cover her mouth.
"Now, now, luv, I don't bite . . . well at least not anymore," A distinct British dialect whispered in her ear. Spike. Of course it was Spike; he conveniently seemed to always show up when Willow was bleeding. Satisfied she wasn't going to try to scream anymore, Spike removed his hand from her mouth, but didn't loosen his grip on her arm. She sighed dramatically. What did he want now?
"Spike, what do you want? Can't you see I'm a little busy here?" She asked him impatiently. He raised his scarred eyebrow at her and smirked slightly.
"Busy what? Bleeding all over yourself and attracting any vampire lucky enough to get close enough to catch a whiff?" He asked while trying to ignore the overwhelming urge to lap up the crimson blood staining her hand. He had almost been able to forget the call her blood had. It was the same with all witches. Their blood was addictive and intoxicating and left vampires practically begging for more. It was like a drug. Drusilla used to say that the blood of a witch sang in her veins, and it was actually pretty accurate. The raw, unfiltered power lasted for at least a day.
All these thoughts flowed through his head in only mere seconds, and Willow flinched as his grip tightened even more around her arm as he fought against his demon once more. Bloody hell, I can't let her hold so much above my head, if I give in, she'll have all the damn power. The small voice in his head was quickly drowned out by his demon roaring inside his cranium, screaming all sorts of nasty things he needed to do to her. With a bloodthirsty yell, his eyes glowed bright yellow and he sank his teeth into the flesh of her palm. Willow gasped, wondering why he could bite her, it didn't make sense. Spike felt a dull, throbbing pain in his brain, but other than that, there was no searing inside his skull. He nearly groaned in pleasure as her warm blood traveled down his throat, sending fire through his dead veins.
It didn't take long before Willow started becoming dizzy. An icy feeling spread up her arm from where Spike was biting her. She didn't understand why his chip wasn't going off. Had he gotten it taken out somehow? Did it break? Did her excessive use of darker magics alter her very being? She was freaking out, but it also felt kinda nice. She felt needed. He needed her at this particular moment. Her mind was starting to cloud and she was ready to pass out. Spike's strong arms wrapped around her as she slumped forward and he kept her from tumbling to the ground and risking detaching his mouth from her palm. Her limp body brought out his predator instinct even more, but he knew he needed to stop. If he killed her, he'd be dust. Buffy would make sure of that.
His demon growled in irritation at being cut off from the life force flowing into him, but even it had survival instincts. Spike glanced down at the barely conscious red head in his arms and she had enough will to glare at him before closing her eyes. Sighing because now he would have to figure out what to do with her, he grabbed the list and keys to the Magic Box. Might as well see what she came for.
It took quite a bit of maneuvering in order to balance the nearly unconscious witch and unlock the door, but once he stepped inside, he set her down in a chair by the table they did all their research on. She was extremely pale, but she would live. She sighed lightly and kept her eyes shut tight, trying to ignore the dizziness that was fogging her mind. After a few moments, she could feel Spike's presence next to her. It was that strange prickling sensation one feels when they know they are being watched.
"I'm not going to die, no thanks to you of course. Why the hell did you do that! How can you bite me? Did you get the chip taken out? Oh my goddess, this has just been an act the whole time, you planned all of this! I bet you never actually had a chip!" The lack of blood flow probably accounted for her not so accurate hypothesis, considering the Initiative admitted to placing a chip in his head. Spike chuckled at her, quite used to her rambling by now. He had known her for years now; it was only likely he'd pick up a few things here and there about her.
"Honestly, Red, I'm just as clueless as you are . . . well okay, not that clueless, but I don't know what's going on with this piece of junk, I know it works, I was thinking about hitting Xander earlier and the chip kicked in just fine." Willow rubbed her temples, her headache even worse than before. Her heart was thumping rapidly to make up for her lost blood, and she could feel it beating all the way in her skull. She purposely ignored Spike's clueless comment and he shrugged, heading off to find what Willow needed for Giles. It was all for selfish reasons though; he was just nosy and wanted to know what Giles was up to. He didn't trust that geezer. While trying to pull out the books Giles wanted, he knocked over some stuff and made a hell of a ruckus.
"Jeez! You must be the clumsiest vampire in existence; could you make any more noise?" She asked him as she slowly got to her feet, placing a hand on the back of her chair when a wave of dizziness came over her. As she glanced down briefly at her hand, she dully noted it had slowed its bleeding for the most part. Yeah, because stupid Spike sucked it all out. She thought as she slowly opened her eyes to normal. The sound of things crashing to the ground reverberated in the room, followed by a string of creative British curse words. What she saw made her giggle despite herself. Spike was precariously holding up a large stack of various mystical objects to keep them from falling to the ground, had his knee against the shelf to keep the whole thing from falling over, and a scowl settled on his face. This scowl intensified as Willow laughed at him.
"Ok, Sabrina, how about you quit laughing at me and bloody help out over here," he told her, feeling clever that he could throw in a pop culture reference that wasn't from the 70's and 80's. Willow rolled her eyes and stepped forward to help, a bit wobbly on her feet. She leaned against the shelf and put both hands on the stacks that Spike was holding up. He moved his hands and went about to making sure nothing was going to fall. He yanked out the books he needed and stepped back, nodding to Willow that she could let go of the stuff she had been holding up. As he took another step back he tripped on something he hadn't seen. A loud clank echoed in the small room as the back of his boot connected with something metallic and he feel back right on his bum.
"What the hell! What's that?" He grumbled as he got to his feet. Willow was too captivated by the strange thing he had fallen over to laugh at him. It was a black cauldron type thing, with chains wrapped around it and locks placed on it. It was covered in sticks and bones and what appeared to be blood. As if to prove her point, Spike sniffed and affirmed that it was blood. Human to boot. "What is it?" He asked again as Willow bent down to examine it. Attached to it was a key and a quickly scrawled note. Willow grabbed the key and Spike picked up the note.
"Do not open under any circumstances, "he read off the card and snorted at it, "hmmm, wanna open it, Red?" He asked her and wiggled his brows at her. It was magickal in origin, so he knew that her interest was already peaked. Honestly, he figured it would be something cool and exciting. Willow was contemplating opening it. She knew if she blatantly ignored the note, Giles would be mad at her, but this strange container was calling out to her, practically begging her to open it. Before she realized she had moved, the chains fell off of it and her hands were reaching to pull off the lid. Spike was staring at it, captivated and horribly impatient. Whatever was inside this container was powerful; he could practically feel the energy coming off in waves. After fumbling with it for a few moments, Willow got the lid off. Nothing happened.
"Well that was anti-climactic," Spike commented, a bit disappointed. Willow was merely puzzled. She had felt something! She stuck her head over it to peer inside of it. Suddenly, as if hit with an unseen force, Willow flew back and hit into the table across the room. Items in the store flew off the shelves they'd been sitting on, and a high-pitched noise screeched though the room, only ending once Willow's body sank to the ground. She was knocked unconscious. All Spike could do was stare. It completely caught him off guard. He rushed across the room to make sure the witch was still alive. Something extremely strange had just happened, and he had no idea what to do about it.
"Bloody hell, that was quite a blast you got there, Red," he muttered as he once again found himself with her unable to walk. He couldn't bring her back to the Scoobies in this condition. Leaving what they had pulled out for Giles, he hefted her into his arms and decided to take her to his crypt until she woke up, then he'd kick her out and make her leave. They were spending entirely too much time around each other, and each time he ended up drinking her blood. She'd be anemic by the end of the week. While he carried her unconscious body, something awakened within her. Spike was obviously unaware, but something dark and deadly was making its home in the witch in his arms. It was a power that had been dormant so long, the majority of creatures still living had forgotten about it, especially the humans. Giles' little delivery was at the core of the problems that were guaranteed to develop. Oblivious to exactly what role he was going to play in this, Spike hummed a song by The Clash under his breathe and kept on walking.