Chapter 26

Spike was full when he returned to Angel's. He had managed to keep his promise to Willow, he had fed and hadn't killed. Wandering the back alleys of Sunnydale was like finding an all you can eat buffet; it was a surprise in a town like Sunnydale, although Spike had never had to not kill his meals before so anyone had been fair game and he liked the challenge of the hunt. He was a predator after all.

He wandered into Angel's purely because he wanted Angel to be in a position to vouch for him if Willow asked if Spike had in fact shown up at Crawford Street. He didn't think she would, she trusted him, but it was better to cover his back just in case.

Angel was home, sitting on the couch with a book and Spike could tell straight away that Angel was fuming. "Where have you been?" He got to his feet when Spike appeared in the doorway, tossing the book on the couch he glared at Spike. "I know you've been to Willow's, I can smell her on you."

Willow's scent was strong although it was still her own; her scent hadn't yet mingled with Spike's which told Angel their relationship was still platonic and Spike hadn't yet managed to scheme and manipulate his way into Willow's bed. The very idea of them being intimate in any way set Angel's teeth on edge.

Spike rolled his eyes. "If you know, why ask?"

"Leave Willow alone, Spike. She doesn't need you screwing with her head, manipulating her and wrecking her life." Angelus had taught Spike well, if anyone knew how to find and exploit someone's inner demons and insecurities and make them work for him it was Spike.

He was angry at the accusation but he kept his emotions under wraps, it came from years of trying to keep his fragile heart safe from the cruelty of Angelus. "That's not what I'm doin'."

"Its what you always do. Leave her alone, Spike."

Spike let out a bitter laugh his eyes hardening. "I know what you're problem is, your jealous."

A surprised look crossed Angel's face. "Jealous? Of what? Why don't you grow up, Spike?"

"Oh you're jealous alright, cos I'm actually needed an' you're not. I saw you," Spike said warming to his theme. "I saw you hittin' the floor all unconscious an' your girl kickin' arse all over the library. Your jealous cos my girl needs me, I get to protect the girl, rescue the girl, you get to be rescued by the girl. Probably makes you feel less of a man, don't it?" he grinned tucking his tongue into his cheek.

"The Slayer's stronger than you an' she don't need you for shit. Now don't get me wrong, the time'll come when my girl's more than capable of turnin' me into a stink beetle or what 'ave you, but she still needs me. We may have been turned by women, women who are strong an' capable, but we still come from a generation of men who looked after women. Its hard to shake even with Sire's like ours. The Slayer don't need lookin' after an' she's proven it time an' time again. She even sent you to hell. You're not needed an' it rankles, don't it Peaches, whether you admit it or not."

"You're way off the mark, Spike." Angel crossed the room pushing past Spike and making his way to the kitchen, he felt claustrophobic all of a sudden.

"I'd say I was right on the mark, Angel," Spike headed for the front door already sick to the back teeth of Angel and his crap.

"Just leave Willow alone."

Spike turned back to the kitchen his eyes hot with anger. "You leave her alone, Angel."

"Huh?"

"All this concern for your girl's best friend, doesn't sit right somehow. You want her for yourself, that it? Slayer not woman enough for you?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Angel couldn't deny that Spike looked pretty intimidating standing there in the doorway with his eyes flashing to that strange mixture of man and demon. He genuinely felt it wouldn't take much to cause Spike to rip his heart out.

"You're gettin' a bit obsessed with my girl is what I'm on about. Wasn't enough for you to 'ave Dru you wanna try an' take Willow too. Well you go ahead an' try mate," Spike challenged. "See how far you get."

Angel squeezed his eyes shut, striving for patience. "I don't feel that way about Willow."

"Sounds like you do." So far as Spike was concerned how could anyone not feel something extra special for an extra special girl.

"Well I don't," Angel snapped.

Spike scowled, he had a lot of trust issues where Angelus was concerned. Angelus had always made it his mission in unlife to take everything that meant anything to Spike. "Bet the Slayer won't be too pleased to 'ear you're makin' goo goo eyes at her best friend. Might even send you back to hell, it has no fury like a woman scorned an' all that rot."

"I'm not in love with Willow!"

"Good. Lets keep it that way." Spike said nothing more, he simply turned and walked out of the house. He needed to see his girl and he needed to see her now; only then would he feel that sense of calm and contentment Willow brought out in him.

Angel let him go, he felt he'd do better with Spike out of his face. He went into the study looking for a drink, he needed something other than pigs blood to calm the shaking of his insides. Angel had an unsettling feeling that Spike had unearthed something that was better left buried but he couldn't put his finger on what it was.

Pouring himself a shot of whisky Angel sank down in a leather wingback chair and stared unseeingly at the wall the whisky sending a pleasant burning down this throat. Spike always did rub him up the wrong way, he was a complete pain the ass and never listened even when he was offered good advice. He was unpredictable, his emotions ruled him sometimes as much as he tried to deny it. Spike bothered Angel on so many levels. It was undeniable that Spike was vicious and evil, Angel knew he was, but he could feel too; Spike could love with a passion unequalled even without a soul. Now that he had a soul it bothered Angel a lot to think that when he was without one he didn't feel anything other than the desire to inflict pain and misery on everyone in his orbit.

Spike was different, he had always been different and where Angelus would ridicule him Angel envied him.

Spike was a wild card, you never could tell what he was going to do next, whether his head or his heart would make the decision for him. Angel felt that most of the time Spike's reactions came as much of a surprise to Spike as they did to everyone else.

When Spike had helped him with The First Evil Angel had seen William in him. Spike hated his useless human counterpart Angel knew, but he didn't. William wasn't as dead and buried as Spike would like him to be. William emerged a lot around Drusilla, he was reemerging now that Spike had a slice of Willow's soul in him. It was William's generosity and kindness that had prompted Spike to try and help him, although Angel knew Spike would deny it to the very last.

Spike had been right, he was jealous in his own way. Spike was like a force of nature, untamable, destructive and beautiful. Everything he did he did whole heartedly whether it was the torture of a victim or loving a woman. Spike's love and passion could be lethal, an almost toxic thing, for feelings so powerful had the ability to take over not just Spike, but the person to whom they were directed. Still, Angel couldn't help wondering what it would be like to be loved so completely.

"Oh…!" Angel's eyes widened and his grip on the glass tightened until it shattered in his hand as realisation slammed through him; it wasn't Spike he was jealous of, it was Willow.

XxX

Willow's house was blazing with lights, it shone like a beacon calling him home and Spike quickened his pace along the sidewalk. He paused when the front door opened and he saw Faith standing there. She had her back to him calling for Willow to have a good time. He couldn't hear what, if anything, Willow said in response, but a moment later Faith shut the door and jumped the last step off the porch.

Faith sensed a vampire near and her head whipped up ready to search for the threat in the darkness. She blinked in surprise to see Spike standing there in full view. She should have expected it to be him really.

"Spike."

"Slayer." She sauntered towards him her hands at the small of her back so that her breasts jutted forward enticingly. Spike's eyes never left her face, Faith gave him points for that.

"I got one thing to say to you. You hurt Willow in any way you'll be praying for a stake to the heart before I'm even half way finished with you."

The threat in itself meant little to Spike, he'd killed two Slayers after all, but he appreciated the sentiment behind it. Faith was standing up for her friend and yet still allowing Willow to make her own decisions. Something told him the other Slayer wouldn't be so considerate. "Hurtin' Willow is the last thing on my mind."

Faith believed him, as odd as it seemed. She was under no illusions that Spike could lie his way out of a room with no doors if he wanted to, but something told her he was sincere, and she chose to trust her gut instinct. She shifted her weight awkwardly from foot to foot before she spoke again trying to find the right words for what she wanted to say; they wouldn't come, she had never been very good at finding the right words.

"Somethin' else you wanna say to me?"

"Yeah, um, be careful with Willow. Remember the kind of girl you're dealing with…" Faith paused, it probably wouldn't be right to come out and tell him of Willow's plans just in case she changed her mind. "She's a good girl, um, you know, innocent about a lot of things. She needs to be handled carefully."

Spike was confused and it showed. "Slayer, what the hell are you on about?"

"You'll understand by the end of the night," she said cryptically and gave him a nod before walking away.

Spike watched her leave and shook his head. "Slayer's are crazy birds." He went into the house calling for Willow as he did so.

"I'll be right there, Spike."

"Take your time, pet. I'm just gonna 'ave a drink." Spike went to the liquor cabinet in the living room and poured himself a scotch. He wished he had never gone back to Crawford Street, Angel always knew just what to say and do to get on his last nerve. Ponce!

"I'm ready when you are, Spike." He felt her behind him, she didn't have to speak, it was a combination of her quiet breathing, her steady heart beat and that delicious scent of wild strawberries, magic and Willow.

Spike turned and almost choked on the scotch. His eyes widened and his lips parted in a soundless moan of desire. "You're bloody gorgeous, pet."

Willow smiled shyly her eyelashes sweeping down for a moment and her hands smoothing along the front of the dress. "It's new, Faith helped me pick it out."

"She's got good taste." Spike's eyes swept over her from head to toe and back again causing a blush to stain Willow's cheeks. She didn't think she'd ever get used to the way Spike could look at her with such intensity.

The red dress called to him, affected him deep in his core. The scooped neck showed the barest hint of the gentle slope of her breasts, the thin spaghetti straps left the pale skin of her neck, shoulders and arms all delightfully bare. It hugged her hips snugly and ended a little above her knee exposing those lovely long legs, every creamy inch of them teasing him without knowing it, begging to be touched and climbed.

And there, nestled into the apple of her cleavage for all the world to see was the necklace he had given her for Christmas.

She was so different to the frightened girl he had kidnapped and terrorised and cried to what felt like light years ago. She had allowed outside influences such as himself and Faith to help her blossom and explore a side to herself she had kept hidden all this time; maybe she hadn't realised it existed, but it certainly did now.

She was willing to flout the rules now, to bend them and ignore them as best suited her needs at any given time. She put herself first and didn't pander to the Slayer the way Angel did; sickening was what it was! More than that, she didn't just include him in her life she actively made room for him, carved out a place that was just for him, just for them, separate and apart from the Slayer and her other friends; nobody had ever done anything like that for him before.

"Lets get goin', sweet."

Spike said very little on the way to Willy's, he let Willow talk and didn't complain that she talked a lot about Faith and how she had spent her day at the beach. He remembered her speaking of Matt and Logan and relaxed when she expressed no wish to head back to the beach herself to see them.

He made the appropriate replies, enjoying her closeness, the way she slid her arm through his and brushed against him as she walked; but his mind was on Angel. The bloody wanker had done all he could to drive a wedge in his relationship with Dru. Angelus had been at his happiest when he was proving that nothing belonged to Spike, not even Drusilla, his own Sire. Drusilla had loved him, Spike knew she had, but Angelus had a hold over her Spike couldn't even make a dent in never mind break. Angel may have his soul now but he was still a demon; he still had the demon's nature and instincts whether Angel liked to acknowledge that or not. Women had always succumbed to the wondrous charms of Angel whether he was a drunken human lout or an evil vampire, why would the soul be any different?

It made him ache, it made his temper flare and his instinctive, natural urge to fight rise to the surface. He hadn't exactly rolled over where Dru and Angelus were concerned, but he hadn't fought tooth and nail for exclusive ownership of Dru's love either; mostly because he knew he was wedged in on the margins were Dru and Angelus were concerned, he knew, even though she had sired him, Drusilla would always love Angelus first.

Angel would not take Willow away from him too.

XxX

Willy's was mostly empty when they arrived. Willy greeted them with loud cheerful tones letting his clients know in no uncertain terms who the vampire was and challenging him would not be in their best interests.

"Something nice and sweet, huh?" Willy asked smiling at Willow when she came up to the bar.

"Yes please."

"Beer," Spike said when Willy lifted questioning eyebrows in his direction. He took Willow to a corner booth but didn't call for cards this time, he'd never concentrate on the game when she was sitting opposite him looking the way she did. She was beautiful, maybe not in the conventional sense, but she was beautiful nonetheless and so unaware of it that it was mystifying and precious all at once.

"Are you alright, Spike? You've been very quiet?" Willow had a thing about silence, she liked to fill it and usually found herself filling it with a lot of useless, ridiculous babble. She was doubly nervous tonight knowing how she wanted the night to end and trying to find a way of getting them there. She didn't have the confidence of a love spell behind her or the comforting familiarity of knowing Spike as well as she did Xander when she had thrown herself at him; only to be rejected.

"'M fine, love. Angel put me in a bit of a mood is all, nothin' for you to worry about."

Her lips pursed and she shook her head a look of amusement on her face. "Is it necessary that you fight with Angel every chance you get?"

"Completely necessary." Spike grinned. "Somebody needs to put him in his place."

"I don't think you hate Angel as much as you pretend to," she said decisively.

"You don't huh?" he looked amused.

"No. If you did then you never would have helped him. You were pretty worried about him no matter what you might claim now."

She looked so pleased at having figured him out that Spike couldn't help chuckling a little. "I'd hate for you to get the wrong idea 'bout me, love. That was more you than me."

"Me?"

"Your soul kickin' into gear an' decidin' old Angel was worth savin'."

"Uh huh," she nodded and took a sip of her drink. "It had nothing to do with you at all. I think you'd both be very upset if something happened to the other."

"There's somethin' in that, love. Not ashamed to say I was a bit upset the Slayer took out Angelus, always figured I'd be the one to do that an' blondie beat me to it."

Willow laughed. "Spike, you can deny it all you like, but you wouldn't really want anything to happen to Angel any more than he would want anything to happen to you. You're family, you have decade's worth of history together, you can't tell me you don't form bonds when you've been together for that long."

Spike pouted instead of replying. He didn't really want to get into it. His history with Angelus was complicated, sometimes he liked Angelus and other times he was plotting his demise; but he couldn't deny they had all, Dru, Darla and himself included, felt the loss of Angelus when he had finally left them all for good after the return of his soul.

"You don't have to say anything, we don't have to talk about it," Willow said hastily. "The way we feel about our family can be complicated. I'm just trying to get a better picture of you. I mean, um, well, I don't know much about you other than what I've read in the Watcher's Diaries and what little Angel has told us. I… I want to know you, Spike."

The simple honestly touched him and Spike had the sudden urge to please her and give her what she wanted. Reaching out he took her hand, bringing it to his mouth he kissed her fingers letting his lips hover over her pulse. "Spike fact number one, I like the feel of your pulse on my lips, it tells me things about you without words."

Willow's breath caught in her throat and her heart picked up speed.

"Spike fact number two, I like the taste of your skin," his tongue flickered across the tips of her fingers. "And I wanna taste every inch of you."

"Spike!" she hissed shooting a look over her shoulder towards the other demons. They weren't sitting close to each other but she knew a lot of demons, not just vampire's, had enhanced hearing. Her free hand touched her flushed cheek; it seemed he never ran out of ways to make her blush.

Spike grinned, a low chuckle vibrating in his throat. "They can't hear me, love."

Willow's stomach tightened, her pulse beat rapidly against his caressing thumb and the flush of arousal spread down her throat to stain her chest and the swell of her breasts; Spike's eyes darkened and his fingers tightened their hold on her hand.

"Know what I'd do right now if you'd let me?" He nibbled gently on the pad of her thumb. She shook her head watching him with wide eyes. "I'd set you on this very table," he patted it with his free hand. "Hike that new dress of yours round your hips…" he kept her fingers against his lips, his voice quivering against her skin. "… push your knickers out of the way and spread your legs… wide…" she was breathing heavily, causing an alluring rise and fall of her chest. "…. And taste you, slide my tongue inside you an' be part of you."

"Spike."

It was a soft moan and coupled with the tantalising scent of her arousal Spike lost control, his face shifting to its natural state, yellow eyes glowing with an unholy light.

"Spike, hey, and Willow, you came back!"

The greeting broke Spike out of his lustful haze and he looked up as Johnny came over to them all torn jeans and loud shirt of him. As soon as he came close enough Johnny's face changed as he too caught the scent of Willow's arousal. He had enough sense to stop moving forward and instead took a step back, he knew enough about Spike to know attacking his girl wasn't going to end well for him.

"I'll be at the bar," Johnny gestured unnecessarily and returned to Willy.

Confused Willow looked to Spike for an explanation. "That was weird."

Spike decided not to tell her the truth it would only upset and embarrass her and he didn't want that. Instead he shrugged and stood up still holding her hand, he gave her a little tug. "Never mind him. Fancy a dance, love?"

She got to her feet and he handed her some quarters. Leaning in to her he spoke quietly in her ear. "Somethin' nice an' slow, pet. Wanna feel you all pressed up against me."

Willow swallowed and nodded. Reluctantly she pulled her hand from his and went to the jukebox while Spike went to the bar.

"Hey, um about that," Johnny rubbed the back of his neck an awkward look on his face. "Didn't mean nothing by it, Spike."

"Just remember who she belongs to. You forget that, even for a second, an' you won't see another sunset."

"I won't," Johnny said hastily. "She took me by surprise that's all. I weren't expecting it and when you get hit with a scent like that…" he trailed off as Spike's expression turned furious. "Yours, Spike," he held up his hands in a sign of surrender. "I know, she's yours."

"How about a game, Spike?" Willy asked hoping to defuse the tension.

"Got somethin' better to do," Spike said watching Willow come back towards him. She'd selected Elvis again and he King's dulcet tones singing I Can't Help Falling In Love With You filled the barroom. If she had only chosen that song for a reason other than the fact Elvis had sung it!

"Do you still want …?"

"I do," Spike said sweeping her into his arms and pulling her close. "Take any excuse to hold you, sweet."

"You don't need an excuse, Spike. You, um, you only have to say," she peered at him through her lashes.

"That right?"

He looked pleased and she relaxed a little more in his arms.

"I don't really know how to dance," Willow admitted.

"I thought you liked dancin' pet?"

"Oh I suppose I do. I dance with Buffy and Xander at The Bronze, its just that I've never really been all that comfortable on the dance floor where everyone can see me."

Spike snorted. "That ain't dancin' that's jumpin' around. Real dancin' requires a lot more skill than that."

"You mean like waltzing and the foxtrot and that kind of dancing? Spike," her face lit up with the delight of a new discovery. "Can you dance like that?"

"Course I can. All well-bred gentlemen learnt how to dance proficiently. It was expected. I learnt other dances over the years as they grew an' changed with the decades, so yeah, I can dance, love."

"Gentleman? Were you rich when you were a human?"

"Probably not by today's standards, but yeah, I was pretty well off when I was alive," Spike admitted. He drew her closer, pressing his body into hers. His lips quirked when she gave a small gasp at the sensation of his erection pressing into her belly. "I'd say sorry but I'm not, I like the affect you 'ave on me."

"Do you like dancing?" Willow had the feeling it was better for both of them to stick to safer subjects than the way they affected each other. Now was not the time to proposition Spike.

"I like to dance with a purpose, I don't just dance for the sake of it."

She looked at him curiously. "I don't understand what you mean."

"Well, take the rumba for instance, the dance of love; all that intense hip swayin' an' steamy eye contact with lots of flirtin' an' teasin'. You're goin' somewhere with a dance like that. Spike fact number three, I like flirtin' an' teasin'. "

"Maybe you could teach me?" She quite liked the idea of dancing like that with Spike.

His tongue tucked into his cheek and he smirked. "Flirtin' an' teasin'? It'll be my pleasure, pet."

Her breathing turned shallow. "I… I meant the dancing," she whispered, her breath sticking in her throat.

"That would lead to mutual pleasure, love, so 'm more than 'appy to teach you."

XxX

Buffy was getting ready to patrol when Xander stormed into the library a look of pure indignation on his face and began to complain. "I just don't know what's happening to her. She just stood there, stood there and let Faith throw me out of the door. She threw me out, literally, threw me out of the door!"

Giles looked up from the book he was reading. "Faith threw you somewhere?"

"Out of Willow's house."

"Well, you must have done something to deserve it," Giles said reasonably. "Willow wouldn't allow that to happen if you hadn't upset her in some way."

Xander scowled. "I didn't do anything much. I was just trying to get her to see how things were but she didn't want to know and she shouted at me. And alright," he said grudgingly. "I may have said something not so good, but I didn't mean it the way it sounded but they wouldn't let me explain, Faith just threw me out. Threw me out!"

Buffy's lips twitched. "You aren't letting that go any time soon are you?"

"I dunno who she thinks she is treating me like a bag of garbage," Xander scowled. He was halfway across the library when he froze his jaw dropping opening. For reasons unknown it came to him now, he saw it as clearly as he had the other night, but with everything else that was going on Xander hadn't really been paying enough attention to take it all in at the time. "They were holding hands!"

A gleam associated with interesting gossip came to Buffy's eyes. "Who were?"

"The night Angel flipped out, they were holding hands!"

Giles exchanged an eye roll with Buffy. "Who are we talking about now?"

Xander made a noise of exasperation. "Willow and Spike!"

XxX

The dancing became a little too much; hips moving together, Spike's thigh shifting between hers pressing up against her and her warm breath on his neck enflamed the heat between them even more. Spike's hold became a little too tight and Willow's pupils dilated so much her eyes were black and Spike became concerned her scent was going to prove too much for the other occupants of the bar as well as himself.

Johnny took over the jukebox and Willow felt she had been flung back into the sixties, she wondered if that was Johnny's era but she didn't pry into his personal life. She did, once she had calmed down, dance with him, but it was nothing like the dancing she had done with Spike. Dancing with Johnny was the jumping around Spike had been scornful of, but she actually felt much more comfortable doing it after the heat with Spike. Willow was now positive a person could burn from the inside out.

"I'll get you a drink," Johnny said as he let Willow take a breather and slide back into the booth. He sashayed up to the bar where Spike was leaning getting another beer and smoking a cigarette. "I told Willow I'd get her a drink, if its okay with you?"

Spike nodded and gestured to get Willy's attention. "You seen Clem about?"

"Not today," Johnny replied. "Shall I pass a message on?"

"Nah, just wonderin'."

"What can I get ya?" Willy asked.

"Whatever Willow's been drinking and a rum and coke for me," Johnny said his foot tapping along to Needles and Pins. "You're always in the know 'round here right?"

Spike shrugged. "Mostly. Why?"

"You heard anything about an ascension? Been some rumblings underground that its coming but I can't find out much about it."

"Ascension?" Spike was intrigued, Angel hadn't mentioned anything and neither had Willow so he was willing to bet this wasn't something the Slayer was part of. "Can't say I've heard anythin' 'bout an ascension. This a good thing or a bad thing?"

Johnny made a face. "Not sure. Guess it depends what side you're on."

"Usually does." Spike turned and looked at Willow through a cloud of smoke. Whatever it was he wanted to make sure Willow was safe through it all. "Keep your ear to the ground, yeah. Let me know what you find out."

"Course I will." Johnny was only too pleased to be of help to a vampire like Spike. An association with Spike would only improve his standing in the demon community and give him a name to trade on.

"Ascension," Spike murmured taking another drag of his cigarette. "Probably a loada bollocks."