Dirty Magic

5C Jury Ave. Tucson, Arizona 2025

He crept up behind her, his hands flecking out to the side as they fell over her eyes. She gave an excited squeal feeling his hard, muscled body behind her, pressing into her delicate flesh. Buffy wasn't as hardy as she looked, on the inside she craved the attention he gave her. He was back in her life because he happened to have followed her from Chicago, and she'd only invited him in because she'd needed a quick fuck that night. He turned her on with a look, a flower he'd picked up on the way there. A blood red rose that carved her finger away into an even bloodier mess but none of that meant anything when his breath was lingering above your neck and his thick accent lilting through your ears.

He was a dark prince, she used to think he was Dracula, the master waiting to wrap her up in his dark castle and submit her to his torturous fate as wife. Slave. He looked like a vampire cowboy, dark blue eyes that stared right through you. Bleach blonde hair with dark eyebrows that never matched, a scarred slit through one of them from a barfight he almost didn't win. Thick studded black biker boots but he had no motorbike, only a run down convertible in beige-grey.

The next morning he'd gotten dressed and stood in the doorway watching her sleep, stetson dipping as he lit a smoke. When he came back in the night, blood smeared on his hands, he lied about cutting himself and soaked in the bathtub for an hour before breathing ash into her neck as he fucked her. He was taking a piece of her soul slowly as he dragged her along with his crazy hours and unreal work.

Dawn Summers
44 Greenwich Ave.
Boston,
Massachusetts

August 23rd 2025

Dawnie,

I have two words for you, Billy Angelov, or Spike as he's going by now. He came back to me Dawnie, waltzed into my life again. I know what happened last time, yeah he hit me, but he's changed, he's better now. He makes love to me, like properly and he tells me I'm his and he's so overpowering. I love it. I don't know if I love him, I probably do, maybe I'm in denial. His sleeping hasn't improved though, I swear he's a vampire, up all night, sleeps through the day when he gets his eyes closed. It's hard, but I kinda do love him Dawnie.

I've been thinking of coming up to visit soon, I promised I would so long ago, and I miss you, and the aunts and I wanna see those girls of yours, scope out Xander see if he's worthy of my Dawnie. I'm bringing Spike, you'll like him, I promise.

Love Buffy, xx

When Dawn read through the letter, she noted Buffy hadn't moved again, which was promising. Her sister liked to move every few months or so, but she seemed to have kept this one for six months already, it was a record if ever she saw one. A step forward. Maybe she'd finally move on and try and settle down. Maybe. When Dawn's eyes scanned through the rest of the text, her heart almost leapt when she heard Buffy might be coming to see them soon, she hadn't seen her in years, the last time was when Joyce was a baby and she'd turned up beaten and bruised with no money. She barely stayed the night, didn't even see Xander; she arrived in the middle of the night with nothing and left well before sunrise in the morning.

Then the words I'm bringing Spike, passed through her mind, the words creasing her brow and aching her mind as she ushered a hand out to grab Xander. He walked towards her, taking the thin paper out of his wife's nimble fingers. Dawn's gaze scouring the room until her eyes landed on their wedding photo, sitting in a silver frame on the side table. Buffy hadn't didn't even come to that either. She'd said she had things to do, and things to be getting on with. In truth Dawn suspected she hadn't the money for the journey, Buffy was nearly always broke. She couldn't tie down a job when the boss got fed up with her, and dropping out of college hadn't left her in the best stead.

"Read this. She wants to come back. And she's bringing him." Dawn said crassly, a slight annoyance lining her usually upbeat voice as she left the room to go and prepare lunch. The kids were still off-school and would want some sustenance soon, the trampoline would ware them out eventually. She was sure they would love a visit from their aunt Buffy. They adored her most of the time, even though she was completely missing from their lives. Dawn envied her sometimes, she could just pop in when she wanted, be the centre of attention, then leave again before she made any lasting bad impression.

Xander was ever intrigued by his sister-in-law, what he'd seen of her - only in decade-old photographs and read of her letters, and he'd spoke to her on the phone briefly a couple of times. She was beautiful in her own way, but then again she was in her early twenties in most of the photos. Blonde so the complete opposite of his Dawn, from what he'd heard about her they were completely different in personality too. But he knew Dawn missed her greatly, he saw the worry and pain lining along her still-young face. He just wished Buffy would come back and be happy and settled so Dawn would stop worrying, and he could see the looks on Willow and Tara's faces every time she was mentioned in the house. It was a family sadness that had befallen them all.

But now she was coming back? What did this mean for his family? For Dawn? For the girls? She couldn't just waltz back into their lives and expect everything to just be as it was could she?