September 2002 - one hour later
Not far from Spike's crypt Buffy and Dawn ended their patrol. They had dusted about 15 vampires just in the last two nights. Buffy was worried, she to had warn Giles again. When so many vampires arrived close to the Hellmouth it was never a good sign.
Suddenly a wolf howled, breaking the silence of the night. By instinct Buffy looked at the sky: it was just a small slice of crescent moon. At least couldn't be a werewolf.
"It made me shiver" Dawn looked her sister uncertainly "It seemed quite close"
"True, quite scary, but I wouldn't worry about it." The slayer seemed absent, she knew it was late, and that Dawn needed to go to sleep, but she needed to check something. Something, a doubt, was insinuating into her head. "Dawnie, do you mind if we make a little detour?"
"It's Ok."
They walked slowly, the slayer looked was sad though if she tried to hide it. Dawn smiled sadly too when she stopped in front of the crypt.
The older Summers girl knocked.
"Buffy? Are you ok? You usually walk in…" Dawn's eyes were wide with surprise and she take them off her sister.
Buffy avoided her sister's glance. "I have this strange feeling…"
"Like what?"
"I feel him close." She smiled at her with a sort of guilty smirk.
Lilea looked toward the door. "Someone… Something strong, is coming… Real strong."
Spike looked at her then at the door too.
"I think you're right. Don't make a sound!" He stood-up quickly holding her wrist "Come on, fast!" They practically ran downstairs.
They were in the middle of the flight of stairs when someone knocked. They vanished into the underground.
"Spike? Spike are you in?" she asked loudly with an unusual uncertain voice.
It was dark in the crypt but unlike of other times there were a couple of candles burning.
Her heart was almost exploded when she saw the lights, scared and anxious at the same time, while she looked around trying to looking for something she didn't know if she was ready for.
The duster, his, was on the floor near a white stick. She picked them up, holding the duster to herself for a while. She walked some steps toward the stairs "Spike?"
The young woman slowly walked down the steps a little way, glancing at the bed. Nothing. It was untouched. Clem made it the evening Dawn stayed there, the evening she found that he was gone. Buffy, went a couple… ok a lot of times to check the crypt. But never she felt this stupid 'butterfly in her stomach' feeling.
Her voice trembled when she called him again.
She stopped staring at the dark of the underground passage.
God, she could feel him so close. How in Hell this was possible, why was this impression so strong now? That idiotic vampire had been away for almost four months, and now how he dare be again in her life, or at least in her mind in so overwhelming a way?
She smiled sadly when she thought she was almost able to smell him.
"Stupid." she said without knowing if she said it to him or to herself.
She left, taking with big steps, without looking back.
Lilea heard Spike jump down the stairs and a moment later she felt herself being taken in his arms in order to get her down the stairs more quickly. She had no idea where the vampire was making her walk, not many steps, but they were really fast. Then suddenly she felt herself pushed quite rudely against the wall. Spike's body against hers.
Lilea started feeling scared. She had never seen Spike's colors spinning in this way, she could see almost all the colors at once. Fear. She could feel it. Fear and desperation.
He was hiding. For the first time.
"Spike? Spike are you in?"
Lilea was stunned. A girl's voice? And yet the colors of the guy was holding her wouldn't stop changing.
Why did he seem so scared? Then she understood.
Spike was pushing Lilea into a crack in the wall, a favor left by Agent Finn's bomb. He realized he wasn't being fair to the girl in his arms, but he didn't want to risk Buffy seeing him. And Lilea was frozen with fear, then exactly at the moment Buffy called his name, the girl relaxed, maybe she started even to smile, but he wasn't very sure.
And Lilea was smiling.
'So this is the girl you are hiding from since so long, buddy. Duh, love. It's always so complicated.'
Lilea wondered if a vampire's heart could explode with emotion even if it wasn't beating. If it could, Spike was going to die exactly at the moment the girl started to go down the stairs.
Lilea felt Spike's body pushing her harder against the wall in order to avoid being seen.
The strange girl's hand moved behind Spike's back holding him to herself, the other hand moved toward his face. She stood on her tiptoes, and her finger stopped on his lips to silence him.
"Occulti tenebris" she whispered in his ear.
The slayer's steps resounded through the cavern. She walked slowly, then stopped for a second exactly next to the invisible couple.
Lilea, without any effort, could see the girl's colors spinning almost in the same way Spike's were doing. And strangely the colors of the one she was holding in her arms and the ones of the mysterious girl's were absolutely complementary. Even thought the blind girl had only been able to see such colors for a few months she had never seen anything similar.
The girl seemed human, her lights were completely different from the demons', but they had a wide range of colors, and in this moment they were completely messed up.
The young witch could bet Spike's eyes were tightly closed, and the other girl's perceptions were altered by the spell, but their auras were reaching toward each other, their souls seemed to communicate.They recognized each other even without a physical contact.
Lilea was not sure, but she guessed Spike was trembling when the mysterious girl almost caressed his back. And in that moment the girl realized how she envied the vampire for that flow of emotions she was sure she'd never feel again.
"Stupid" the visitor said loudly, before leaving quickly. And Lilea smiled at that comment. And she agreed completely.
Both, the witch and the vampire, stayed motionless until they heard the upper door close.
"Mostrate!" Lilea declared, and in that moment the spell was broken.
She took her hand from Spike's back.
"Was it ok? I mean I acted by instinct but maybe you would have preferred her to see… I'm sorry. I was too impulsive… I thought…" She could see his frustrations grow from his colors, and she felt responsible.
He moved away. She could hear his footsteps move away, she heard the noise of a click and a then smelled smoke.
He breathed in his cigarette deeply.
"Thanks" he simply said.
The silence between them was full of tension. But Lilea couldn't resist. "Can I ask you a question?"
He inhaled another a deep drag of his cigarette. "You can. But I might not answer."
"The girl who was here earlier… she… she is human… I can see that… but she is different. I mean you're different too… from other vampires I mean, but she's... she has this energy. She has something I've never seen."
"Yeah. She is different" Lilea waited for him to speak again but he seemed to be concentrating on his smoking.
She was silent for some time, then she called him again with an uncertain voice.
"Spike?"
"What?" She barely remember him being so rude before.
"Where're my bags? I would like to change my... shirt".
Spike realized how short and plunging he had tied the shirt. It was covering her from showing too much of herself but he could easily understand why she didn't feel comfortable.
"Oh sure" He walked out of the room, then he returned with the bags. She took them with no hesitation, and once Lilea heard him go upstairs, she opened the suitcase and extracted the first T-shirt she found. This wasn't magic. She had no idea whether it fitted, but it felt comfy, so she decided it was ok.
The sound of broken stuff from her backpack left her little hope of finding anything undamaged.
She stretched her hand into it. "Ouch!" She pulled her hand into her mount: she tasted blood.
"Wonderful… Just I what we need. No magic stuff at all."
"What?" Spike peeped out
"Sorry just…" she pointed the backpack "Have you got a bin? " She fastened it and took it upstairs "Is there some place where we can find magic here in Sunnydale?"
"You'll find even more than you need, luv. Don't worry about that!"
To be continued