She woke up with a burning feeling in her back, like she had had been branded with a hot iron. Her heart was beating unusually fast, as if she had been running a marathon, and her muscles felt sore. She was on some kind of cushiony surface, lying on her side, and she couldn't hear a thing.
That is, until she opened her eyes and saw the same bleached blond vampire she had seen before being knocked out by... a taser?
"There you are, love. Beginning to think you'd sleep the night away." He tried to hide his concern, crouched in front of her in what was probably the lower level of his crypt, lit by torches, with skulls here and there, a few coffins and even a chest.
"What... happened, Spike?" She tried to sit up, her hands shaking a bit. "Who... who tasered me? What's going on?"
He stepped aside to let her see the beautiful woman tied to a pillar, all of her dark, except for her pearly skin, with a few burn marks here and there. "Not nice to change the game in mid-play, Spike. You've taken my chair and the music hasn't stopped."
"Sorry, pet. My house, my rules." The blond countered, not really caring about it.
"I think I shall be very cross with you when I'm free again." Her voice was sweet and soft, but the way she talked made her sound a bit... mad.
"What's going on?" Ally repeated, folding her hands on her lap to prevent them from trembling anymore, her gaze moving back and forth between both vampires.
"Simple. This is Drusilla, my ex." He didn't seem bothered by her raised eyebrow. What did that had to do with her? "I'm gonna prove something. I love you."
Drusilla started laughing in the background, apparently thoroughly amused. Spike didn't like it, though. "I can do without the laugh track, Dru."
"But it's so funny. I knew ... before you did. I knew you loved the Potential. The pixies in my head whispered it to me." The woman was definitely insane. Yet, the bit about the Potential grabbed Ally's attention. How did she know? Did Spike tell her?
"You can't tell me that there isn't anything there between you and me. I know you feel something. I love you." Her friend insisted, his voice vulnerable, his emotions out in the open.
She sighed, hanging her head, knowing this was going to take them nowhere good. "You can't, Spike..." She started, only to be interrupted by the dark haired vampire.
"Oh, we can, you know. We can love quite well. If not wisely." Her dreamy voice kept Ally calm, yet it was not what she meant.
Spike got nervous at her words, frantic. "You don't believe. Don't think I mean it. You want proof, huh?" His voice dropped to a whisper. "How's this?" He stalked to the chest, grabbed a stake and pointed it straight to Drusilla's heart. "I'm gonna kill Drusilla for you."
"Spike, it's not... I can't. And hey, if you want to kill her, by now I'm pretty sure it's her who arrived in that train. But I can't... I can't do this."
"This is Drusilla, girl! You have the slightest idea what she means to me? It's the face of my salvation!" He looked at Dru and smiled lightly, taking the stake away from her chest. "She delivered me from mediocrity. For over a century we ... cut a swath through continents. A hundred years, she never stopped surprising me." His eyes were warm, his face loving, and Ally was surprise at the slight pang in her heart. But Spike did not understand, he didn't know what she meant. He was blinded, he wouldn't listen. He raised his hand to stroke Drusilla's face, her expression one of devotion. "Never stopped taking me to new depths. I was a lucky bloke. Just to touch such a black beauty." She mewled, right before he put the stake back against her heart. "So you see, it means something."
"You don't understand, Spike. I can't."
"Because I am a vampire?! Because you're too good?!" He turned his back on her, still on the pile of cushions he had put her on, and then screamed his lungs out, throwing his arms to his sides and hurling the stake against the wall. "What the bleeding hell is wrong with you bloody women? What the hell does it take? Why ... do you bitches torture me?" She had never seen him like that, fuming, the veins in his neck and forehead popping out. She flinched, scooting back among the pillows unconsciously. "Look, I, I'm at the end of my bleeding tether. You know? I don't even know why I even bother, you know." He started pacing like a mad man, all at once turning towards his ex and pointing his finger at her. "This is your fault. You're the one to blame for all this." Ally didn't even know what to do. How could she get him to calm down, to listen?
"Am I?" She asked, not even touched by his rant, her voice still calm and dreamy, like silk rolling off her tongue.
Spike just kept on screaming. "Bloody right you are! If you hadn't left me for that chaos demon, I never would have come back here! Never would have had this sodding chip in my skull!" Again, the chip. Ally had to remember to ask him about it once things had calmed down. "And you - " He turned towards the girl curled into a ball on the floor, looking up at him in fear and uneasiness. "wouldn't be able to touch me, because this," he pointed from him to Ally, desperate. "with you, is wrong. I know it. I'm not a complete idiot."
She just wanted to tell him, just wanted to get him to sit down with her on the couch, like before, and explain everything to him.
Instead, he stomped past her, once again twisting around and looking at her, pointing towards his chest. "You think I like having you in here? Destroying everything that was me, until all that's left is you, in a dead shell. " He scoffed, shaking his head. "You know, what I should just do, is get rid of both of you." Ally's eyes widened, unable to believe his words. Was he that hurt? "Burn you. Cut you into little pieces so there won't be any more bints to cock up things for Spi-"
Suddenly, he stopped and fell to the ground, an arrow sticking out of his back.
"Spike!" Ally jumped up from her place among the pillows, running to his side. She could see another pretty blonde girl with a crossbow behind him, staring at him. Another ex? What the hell? What did he do to them? Still, she fell to her knees next to him, hands hovering over him, not sure if she should pull the arrow out.
He glanced at her, surprised at her actions, then at the blonde. "Oh, great."
"What about me, Spike?" The blonde asked, stepping a bit closer to the pair. "You forget about me again? The actual girlfriend?" She was hurt, that much was obvious, but she also looked strangely naive for what Ally assumed was another vampire. "I gave you the best ... bunch of months of my life!" She raised her crossbow to hit him with it, the weapon stopping a few inches from his head by the Potential's hands, the pressure on her shoulder making pain sear through her.
"That's right, little girl. Teach our naughty boy a lesson." Drusilla encouraged the new arrival, her voice not betraying any emotions.
"Oh, so now you're all ganging up." Complained the only man while the blonde stepped back from the attack, eyeing the human in front of her, noticing her holding her right hand to her left shoulder as if injured.
"I thought I could change you, Spike. I thought maybe if I gave and I gave and gave, maybe you'd come around." She turned her back on them, walked a couple steps and face them again. "Maybe be a little nicer. Stop treating me like your dog." She began to reload the crossbow while the Potential tried to help Spike, still hunched over on his knees. "But now I see it's you. You're the dog. Who needs to be put d-"
She bent over a bit to pick up another arrow, and Spike took his chance to lunge at her, pushing Ally to the side and out of the fight. He had noticed her pain, and he simply didn't have it in him to let her get hurt, no matter how angry he was. He had come to him when he was hurt. At least, she cared.
But Ally didn't feel it was right to let him fight alone with an arrow popping out of his back. How he could move like that was something she could not understand.
He managed to pull the girl to the ground, but she twisted the arrow, making him growl in pain and Ally step towards them. She just couldn't...
She was interrupted from her plan of helping him by Drusilla getting free and attacking her, punching her and kicking her in the gut, averting her attention to her own fight. She blocked a couple hits, yet she knew that the vampire was old and experienced. When Dru realized the girl could put up a fight, she resorted to taking a wooden board and hitting her with it, before grabbing Ally's throat in her hand, ready to finish her.
In an instant, Spike was on her, throwing his ex to the side and making sure his friend was fine, no mortal wounds on her.
The dark haired beauty stood up from the ground, looking betrayed, her eyes on her former lover. "Poor Spike... so lost." And for the first time that night, her voice trembled, mourning the loss. "Even I can't help you now." With that, she parted, leaving the odd couple with the blonde whose name Ally still hadn't heard.
"Oh Spikey." She called, gaining their attention. "And you can say good-bye to this" She pointed at her butt, cocking her hips to let them see it clearly. "because you're not gonna see it any more ever. Unless you run into me somewhere and it's me walking away from you. But even then ... I'll probably just ... you know ... back away." Her goodbye lost its intensity with her last words, even more when she did exactly that, back away until she was no more in sight.
They were finally alone, and Spike looked a bit more calm, although she couldn't know for sure, he could be keeping it down for a bit before exploding again. He looked almost... hopeful.
"That was a hell of a reunion." She commented, holding her hand to her jaw, where she could already feel the bruise forming from one of Drusilla's successful punches.
"I... am sorry for the way it turned out. Wasn't expecting you to turn up tonight, I didn't want to do it like this." He seemed to be ashamed, not daring to look her in the eye.
"So you were thinking about telling me about... your feelings?" She hugged herself, wincing at another bruise on her stomach.
"Yes, of course, but I... I knew you wouldn't like it, I knew you wouldn't want anything to do with me." His words started coming out quickly, not even letting her speak. "We have something, Ally Cat. It's not pretty, but it's real."
She smiled at the nickname. She liked it. Spike seemed to take this as a good sign as was about to start his speech again, but she held up a hand to stop him.
"How about you walk me to the Summers' home and you finally listen to what I have to say? You haven't even let me explain, Spike." She started walking towards the ladder that lead to ground level, pausing at the base to look at him. "Are you coming? I thought I still wasn't allowed to stroll around the graveyard alone at night."
