Chapter 7

His fingers were cool in hers and Willow shivered a little. Taking a step back she drew him with her. "Come in, Spike."

"Don't mind if I do." Spike stepped into her room his eyes darting around as he took in his surroundings. The first thing he noticed however was the scent of her room, laundry powder, perfume, candles and Willow. Spike inhaled deeply, he liked it.

Willow had redecorated her room when she moved into high school, it was no longer the room of a little girl and she wasn't one for fussy frills and pink stuff either. But Spike made her room look small and feminine, he was just so male standing there in head to toe black and that red shirt that somehow accentuated his pale skin and made him look like a marble statue when he stood still.

Spike very rarely stood still and now was no exception. He moved around her in a circle, unable to go too far as she was still holding his hand. Willow blushed furiously when she realised what she was doing and dropped his fingers quickly.

"I have to finish my essay, it's nearly done, I won't be long."

"You carry on pet, don't mind me." Spike wandered to her chest of drawers and examined the nick knacks lying about on top of it.

"Do you want a drink? I don't have blood but I have alcohol."

"Just tell me where it is an' I'll get it, don't want to disturb you," Spike smiled pleasantly at her.

"In the living room, the cabinet by the TV."

Spike nodded. "I'll get to it."

"Right," Willow sat back at her desk and reopened Shakespeare but it was impossible for her to concentrate when Spike was wandering about behind her picking things up and then putting them down, running his finger along the spines of her books, peering into her fish tank and tapping lightly at the glass and squatting to examine her music collection expressing his opinion at what he found there with a loud snort. Willow shot him an annoyed look but didn't say anything.

Eventually he left the room and Willow let out a breath of relief and rolled her shoulders, she was suddenly feeling all tense.

Shakespeare did not hold as much interest for her now as it had only minutes ago, now her mind was on the vampire pottering about in the other room. She wondered what he was doing; it shouldn't take him this long to pour himself a drink. But, having been alone in her own home for so long it was nice to hear movement down the hallway and know that just for now, just for tonight there was someone else within these four walls with her; it was comforting somehow.

Pulling her mind back to her homework Willow forced herself to focus, the sooner she finished the sooner she could try out some spells with Spike.

He reappeared a little while later with a glass of scotch in his hand. Propping himself up against the door frame Spike watched her as her fingers flew over the keyboard and her lips moved in silent thought of what came next.

"You about done?"

Willow jumped startled. "Goodness, don't do that." She pressed a hand to her heart for a moment. "Yes, just got to print it off and I'm all done."

"Good." Spike came into the room shrugging off his duster and tossing it across the back of a chair.

The printer groaned to life and Willow frowned at it. She really needed a new one, this one was on its last legs and it would be just her luck that it would conk out on her when she had a super important homework assignment to do. Shuffling her papers together, closing down her lap top and putting her books back into her bag Willow nodded once in satisfaction, homework was done and now she could have fun.

"I'm ready." Her smile faltered when she saw him, he looked so different without his trademark coat and Willow found herself fixating on the tight fit of his jeans.

"Finally."

Spike turned to face her and Willow noticed that those jeans were just as nice from the front as from the back. She hadn't noticed before what with him trying to kill her and wearing that long coat. There was a little tingle in her belly as her eyes slid up his flat stomach, over a chest that was really worth sighing about, to the broad expanse of his shoulders. He wasn't built big like Angel but Willow felt she preferred Spike's more compact frame. She finished her perusal with sharp cheekbones a chiselled jaw, amazing blue eyes and she almost forgot to breathe.

"Oh, Buffy!" Willow bit her bottom lip. "I'm supposed to meet her for patrol."

"You better do somethin' 'bout that, pet. Don't want her turnin' up here lookin' for you."

Picking up the phone she dialled the library in the hopes that she would catch Buffy before she headed out. Giles answered on the third ring.

"Hey, Giles it's me, Willow. Did Buffy leave yet?"

"No not yet, she's still here. Is something wrong?"

"Not wrong exactly," Willow said. "But, um, I won't be able to make patrol with her tonight. I um, I'm not feeling well."

"Is it a side effect?" Giles asked worriedly.

"No, it's just a headache. I think I'll have an early night."

"Well yes of course, if you're unwell sleep is the best thing for you," Giles agreed. "Don't worry about anything, Willow we'll keep researching here. It's probably all the worry and stress of the last few days catching up with you. Try and get a good night's sleep."

"I will, thanks, Giles. Good night."

"Good night, Willow."

"Oh, and um, tell Oz that I'll see him tomorrow, okay?"

Giles smiled into the phone. "I will."

"Now that's all sorted, what'll we start with, love?" Spike asked taking a seat at her desk.

"Well, I'm still learning, but there's this cloaking spell I wanted to try out. I figured that if I could master that then it would be a big help to Buffy, and well, Faith too now I guess. But," her mouth turned down at the corners. "The last time I tried it the candle melted all over the place."

Spike chuckled. "Just need to concentrate is all. Not sure how much I like the idea of the Slayer 'aving that kind of advantage over me though."

"Oh well, I wouldn't use it against you, Spike. Just, you know, other vampire's and demons."

"Sounds fair."

Willow smiled, leaning over him she plucked a pencil out of the pot on her desk. "There's something I want to show you, it's pretty neat." Setting the pencil down she knelt at his feet and stared at the pencil for a long moment. At first nothing happened but then the pencil quivered and began to rise into the air and slowly rotate. "Neat huh?"

"Uh huh." Spike wasn't really thinking about rotating pencils when she was in this position. His mind went unbidden to the dark corners of desire and Spike found himself fantasising about her turning towards him, unzipping his jeans and taking him in her mouth as his fingers slid through her hair.

"I wish all spells could be this easy."

Spike drew his attention back to the present. "They will be love, just give it time."

"How much time? Like, soon?"

Spike chuckled. "If you work hard."

"I can do that. I'm the original work hard girl," Willow said with a nod.

Spike looked from her to the pencil. "Might not need to work that hard, the pencil's still rotatin' and you're not concentratin' on it at all."

Willow glanced over her shoulder at the pencil. "Oh it'll do that until I make it stop. Sometimes I forget it's even there."

"So you don't have to concentrate to make it spin?"

She shook her head. "Not really, only to get it started. Once I got really frustrated with my math homework and it started spinning like crazy, it got really blurry. Like the pencil version of The Flash or something. He's the one right? The fast one?"

Spike looked confused. "I don't know who that is, pet."

Willow shrugged. "It's not important."

"Can you float more than one pencil?"

"I don't know. I've never tried it. Let's try." Reaching for the pot of pens and pencils Willow emptied them across her desk, spreading them out before settling back down to concentrate. It didn't take her long before the air above her desk was filled with floating stationary. She beamed at Spike.

"Can you levitate something bigger than a pencil?"

"Levitate?" Willow frowned. "I never thought about it that way. You know, levitation. I just figured it was neat that I could float a pencil."

Spike let out an unnecessary breath. "That's because you're tryin' to learn all this stuff on your own. If you 'ad someone to guide you then you'd be lookin' at things differently. I told you the Watcher didn't know what he was about, didn't I?"

"Giles tries his best," Willow said. "But well, he's a Watcher, Buffy's Watcher. He can't do everything at once."

For that Spike was grateful. With the Watcher busy watching over the Slayer that gave him free reign with Willow. The things he would show her, the things he could teach her, with his guidance she would be a force to be reckoned with in time. She had a power inside her that was raging against its restraints and just itching to get out; Spike was intent on unleashing that power.

"Good thing I'm here to help then."

She smiled, "Guess so."

"Try levitating a book next, it's not too big but its bigger than a soddin' pencil. That's child's play, you're better than that, love."

"You think so?" she looked surprised.

Spike tapped his chest. "I know so."

"Levitation," Willow murmured going to her bed and pulling out a large magic book from beneath it. "Neat."

Spike grinned. "When you really get the hang of it there'll be no stoppin' you. You'll be able to levitate all kinds of things."

"Really? Like what?"

He shrugged. "Cars, people, vampire's in trouble," he winked and she laughed.

"Levitating you out of trouble would be a full time job."

He laughed and nodded his agreement. "Can't argue with that, pet."

For the next few hours Willow concentrated on levitation, gradually moving on to bigger and heavier objects. Spike didn't say much, he simply sat quietly in her desk chair with Willow at his feet and watched her. He had known a few witches in his time but he'd never really been friends with one, not that he particularly thought of Willow as a friend, but she was hardly his enemy either. Spike wasn't sure what to call her; they were definitely something, what with her soul inside him and what all.

Watching her perform her spells was an interesting experience, Spike hadn't had the opportunity to just sit back and watch a witch work her magic. There was an ever so slight shift in the air around her, it became charged, like an electrical current woven into the atmosphere and her eyes seemed to brighten with the heightened power inside her. Spike felt that power inside him. It wasn't painful or even uncomfortable, but it was a very strange feeling. Her soul recognised the power as part of itself and it squirmed inside him as though it were trying to escape and join forces with its other half. Spike rubbed slow circles over his chest as though he could sooth it into submission.

Cheeks flushed pink and eyes gleaming with excitement Willow turned to him suddenly. "Don't move, Spike."

"What? Why?"

Willow didn't respond, instead she just stared at him long and hard her brow furrowing in concentration. She let out a huff of frustration and poked at his knee crossly when he didn't move an inch.

"Are you tryin' to levitate me?"

"Oh hush! I'm trying to focus."

Spike rolled his eyes. "Well excuse me for being a little cautious, the last time you did a spell that involved me it didn't work out that great."

Willow sighed, ignoring him as her frown deepened. She was determined to move Spike. Levitation could be just as useful to Buffy as a cloaking spell. If she could move Buffy about as easily as she did a pencil then she really would be a help out in the field instead of being a hindrance. Willow was honest enough with herself to admit that as much as she and Xander wanted to help Buffy sometimes they got in the way more than anything and divided Buffy's focus because she worried about them getting hurt.

"Hey now!" Spike exclaimed as he felt him rise from the chair. There were no arms for him to grab hold of to steady himself and he found himself hovering a few inches above the seat. "Careful now, pet."

"I did it!" she squealed clapping her hands with excitement.

It was enough to make her loose her focus and Spike landed hard on the chair tumbling to the side and onto the floor.

He glared up at her. "That what you call careful?"

Catching her bottom lip between her teeth Willow winced. "Sorry Spike. I guess I need to really focus if I'm going to levitate people."

"What's say we move on from levitation huh, pet?" Spike righted himself in the chair, rather hoping she'd had enough of including him in the magic for one night.

"Alright, I guess I've practiced that enough tonight. I'm definitely getting better, don't you think?"

"Yeah I do. We'll go back to it another night when I'm sittin' on somethin' soft." He smiled to take the sting out of his words.

"Can I try the cloaking spell now?"

Spike nodded. "Go ahead, lets see what you've got, love."

Willow got up and went to the closet from where she re-emerged with a large red candle. She set it in the middle of the room and brought over matches and a spell book.

Kneeling before the candle she lit the wick and looked over the spell again. "Well," she looked anxiously at Spike. "Here goes."

Willow began to chant, she waited a full two minutes after ending the spell but nothing happened. This time the candle didn't even melt. She pouted, disappointed.

"Try again," Spike encouraged. "This time try really focusing on the flame and open your mind up. Sometimes it helps to have a clear mind."

Taking a couple of deep breaths to centre herself Willow watched the flickering orange flame until her eyes slid out of focus. She tried the spell again, the words felt more comfortable on her tongue this time and she could feel something cool sliding against her skin.

"It's workin'," Spike said as a thin grey mist materialised in the air, swirling around her body and spreading outwards across the room. The soul fluttered inside him again and Spike patted his chest absently.

In no time the mist was so thick that he couldn't see her at all. In fact he couldn't see much of anything, the only way he knew she was there was from her scent and the soft sound of her heart beating.

He shivered slightly when the mist touched him, curling around him turning thicker, changing from grey to black. Spike stood up concerned. "Love?"

Opening her eyes Willow was surprised to see the black mist floating about her obscuring everything in sight. She was aware that it wasn't supposed to be like this, it wasn't how the book described the effects of the spell. On the bright side, the candle hadn't melted all over the carpet.

Climbing to her feet she peered into the mist. "Spike?" Willow shuddered, gooseflesh prickling over her skin when she stepped deeper into the mist.

"Good job, pet. You, um, you wanna get rid of it all now?"

Willow turned back towards the candle, all she had to do was blow out the flame, but the candle had been swallowed up by the mist. She gasped looking around wildly, she was afraid to move in case she kicked the candle over and set fire to the carpet.

Swallowing nervously she looked about her for any sign of Spike but she could hardly see her hand in front of her face. The mist was cold and getting colder, it was thick and getting thicker, it was black and getting blacker and it seemed to be prowling around her like a wild animal.

"Spike!" Willow pivoted anxiously on the balls of her feet her breath coming out in little white puffs. "Spike where are you?"

"I'm right here," Spike took a step forward, she hadn't been that far away from him. "Stay where you are, pet. I'll come to you."

Even he could feel the chill of the mist and Spike knew that something wasn't right; variations in temperature didn't really bother him unless fire was involved. Reaching out he waved his hand about in the mist to see if he could brush it aside but it had no effect at all. Still, he had faced worse than mist in his time and he pressed on anyway, following her scent.

Rubbing her hands up and down her cold arms Willow stayed still waiting for Spike. The mist still moved, drifting about reaching out long cold fingers to touch her and curl around her ankles and wrists like manacles.

Willow screamed, fear shooting through her, the mist had captured her; it was wrapping around her throat, covering her body, pressing down on her. "Spike!"

"Here." Spike appeared out of the blackness his eyes widening in shock to see her clawing at her throat. "What do I do?"

"The candle," Willow rasped. "Blow it out."

Spike sniffed and caught the burning scent of the wick. Dropping to his knees he reached through the mist his fingers wrapping around the candle and drawing it towards him. He blew out the flame and the mist evaporated in the space of a few seconds.

Willow gasped rubbing at her throat. "Thank you, Spike."

"You alright, love?" Taking her chin between his fingers Spike tilted her head back to examine her face.

"Yes," she said letting out a breath of relief. "You saved me."

"What happened? I know that's not how the spell was supposed to go."

"I don't know," Willow admitted. "It sort of worked, I mean the mist was supposed to happen and it was meant to hide you from me because that's what a cloaking spell does. But I don't know why it turned so black or so cold or tried to swallow me up like something from a bad science fiction movie."

Spike laughed softly drawing her against his chest until her heart beat regulated out. "Better luck next time, pet. They didn't hit the moon with the first missile shot either."

"If at first you don't succeed, right?"

"Right. Can't go through life quittin' when things go wrong."

"Right," she agreed, after all, Buffy didn't quit when the going got tough and Buffy had dealt with a lot of tough going's over the last few years. Willow covered a yawn with her hand. "I think that's enough magic for tonight and besides, it's getting late and I have school in the morning. I don't want to be late again like I was today."

Spike released her and took up his duster. "Been an interesting night, can't say as I've ever been in that position before, and," he paused to give her a long look. "I've been in a lot of positions in my time."

Willow blushed and averted her eyes from his face. "What position?"

"Savin' a human. Quite a hero, aren't I?"

Willow gave him a grateful smile as she followed him to the windows. "I suppose you are. Thank you, Spike."

Pulling open the doors he stepped out into the night, Willow stood in the doorway breathing in the night air. He turned and considered her thoughtfully. "Hero's get rewards, don't they?"

Her lips twitched. "I guess so. And I have the feeling you have something specific in mind."

He pinned her with intense blue eyes. "Have somethin' in mind? Yeah love, lots of having in my mind."

Her jaw dropped open and her mouth worked soundlessly as her face flamed. "I…"

Titling his head Spike smirked, it was a soft almost lazy smirk and his eyes fairly gleamed with intent. "Hum, I see."

He stepped away from the window into the shadows of the back garden his black attire swallowed up by the night.

Willow blinked. Just what had he meant by that? Before her brain managed to catch up to her body Willow was moving. "Spike!" she stepped out on to the back porch.

He appeared out of nowhere, or perhaps her mind was too fuzzy and confused to register where he had actually been standing because he was there, right in front of her the moment she stepped away from the door.

Spike swooped down sending her stumbling backwards. Her back hit the window and his hands came up to rest on either side of her head. Willow sucked in a deep breath her whole body going ridged.

"No having, huh?" His lips curled into a languid smile. "And yet you took away the safety barrier and invited me into your room." Dipping and angling his head so that his nose touched her neck Spike inhaled deeply. "I found you so easily through that magic mist of yours by scent alone. Did you know you smell like strawberries? Not just any strawberries, but the kind that 'ave spent days out in the sun and are wet with mornin' dew."

Willow's eyes widened and her lips parted in surprise. "I…um…I…"

He trailed a finger down the curve of her neck. "Sweet dreams, pet."

And then he was gone, melting away into the darkness.