CHAPTER 3
Buffy snapped her cellphone shut with an irritated growl.
"What did Giles say?" Angel asked, already knowing he wasn't going to like the answer.
Buffy took a calming breath that didn't do much good in calming her. "Giles said the Council sent a team to take care of it. He never knew what they did with Acathla. The Council felt it wouldn't be safe for him to know, because he had divulged the necessary information needed to awaken Acathla to you."
Angel's expression darkened; his fury matching Buffy's.
"I swear if one hair on my daughter's head is harmed because of their bloody lame-ass incompetence, I will wipe the entire Watcher's Council off the face of this planet," Buffy growled.
"We won't let that happen, Love," Angel said, stealing a glance at his wife's set face. "They had better pray nothing happens."
A loaded silence fell over the car as Angel maneuvered the car through evening LA traffic, the sun slowly sinking beneath the horizon.
***************
Aurora sighed and sank back into her boyfriend's arms. His chest was hard and strong against her back, his lips nuzzling at her ear soft and warm.
"I wish you could stay, but my folks will be home soon," Aurora sighed, shivering with pleasure at the attentions being paid to her neck.
"Maybe I should meet them."
Aurora hesitated and shook her head. "Not yet. I've given them enough to worry about without adding any more ….. umm….. unexpected elements to the mix." She felt her boyfriend laugh against her and smiled.
"Are you going out tonight?"
"I should. Nate wants me to," Aurora sighed. She didn't want to think of patrolling right now.
"I'll go with you if you like. Keep the monsters away."
Another smile softened the worry lines creasing Aurora's young face. "I'd like that," she whispered, turning to capture the soft mouth close to her cheek with her own.
The couple didn't hear the front door open. They didn't hear the footsteps climbing the stairs. They didn't hear the door unlatch and creak open. They didn't hear anything until…
"Get your hands off my daughter!" Aurora's mother stormed into the room, knocking Aurora aside and with lightning quick reflexes pinned the unknown visitor to the wall, her hand crushing down on his throat.
Aurora clambered to her feet, shouting, "Mom, no!"
"Ease up on the throat, will you, pet?" the choking man forced out past the elder Slayer's unrelenting hand.
Buffy blinked, not believing what her eyes were telling her. "Spike?" she asked incredulously, letting go of her prey.
"Hello, sweetness," the blonde grinned down at Buffy, rubbing his throat. "It's been a long time, hasn't it?"
Aurora was shaking her head. This made no sense at all. Her boyfriend and her mother knew each other?
"Spike." All eyes rose to Aurora's father standing in the doorway.
Even as a human he makes an imposing figure, Spike thought. "Hello, peaches!" he said flippantly to hide the butterflies fluttering in his stomach at seeing his sire again.
"Wait, hold up," Aurora interjected, needing an explanation from her parents. "You know my boyfriend?"
Buffy and Angel exchanged quick glances. They had more important questions to ask, but how to proceed without crushing their daughter in the process was the problem.
"What are you doing with Aurora, Spike?" Angel asked Spike, sounding every inch the Master vampire demanding an answer from his fledgling.
Spike, being typical Spike, went on the offensive. "That's all you have to say to me? After everything that's happened? And then you just left without a word… again… disappearing with your little blonde human. And besides that, it's okay for you to have a Slayer girlfriend, but not for me?"
"Spike!" Buffy and Aurora both cried indignantly, wanting to keep their individual secrets secret.
Angel didn't raise to the bait like Spike hoped he would. 'Still the damned Master, aren't you?', he thought bitterly, cursing his unbeating heart for aching so at the sight of Angel.
"Are you here to awaken Acathla?" Angel asked, getting right to the point.
Spike frowned, clearly not understanding. This lifted the heavy stone pressing down on Angel's heart. "Acathla? What are you on about, you big poof? Need I remind you I was the one that helped stop that thing from sucking the world into Hell? What would I want with it now? Bloody idiot."
Buffy asked the other question nagging at her. "Are you still chipped, Spike?"
"CHRIST! Yes! Are you happy now? Spike's still just a big fluffy puppy with bad teeth!" the blonde vampire exploded, spinning to face down his Slayer foe. "Tell me, sweetness, do you really think you'd still be breathing if this fucking chip wasn't still in my head?"
Aurora gasped at the vicious threat her boyfriend flung at her mother. "Spike, don't!"
An iron-hard hand gripped the back of the vampire's neck, squeezing. "Be nice, boy. You don't want to outstay your welcome, do you?" Angel growled into Spike's ear.
He's as strong as ever, Spike marveled through the pain shooting down his spine. "Yes, Sire. I'm sorry," he hissed, his teeth clenched to stop the yelp from escaping.
"Daddy, no, you're hurting him." Everybody seemed to have forgotten about the very confused and very angry Aurora, who was watching the events unfold before her. She felt like she came into the movie 3 sequels too late and nobody wanted to share the backstory.
Aurora swallowed the tears threatening to spill from her dark brown eyes and, storming to where Spike was still caught in her father's iron grip, boomed, "ENOUGH!" She shoved the two men apart, sending both Spike and Angel flying into the walls.
"Daddy! Oh God, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to," she gasped at the sight of Angel lying crumpled against her wall. Buffy rushed to her husband's side, helping him to his feet.
"Oi! What about some sympathy for me? I'm the one with the dislocated shoulder here," Spike whined, not appreciating not having anyone pay attention to his pain.
"Shut up, Spike," Buffy spat.
Spike ground his teeth and slammed his shoulder back into its socket, all the time mumbling to himself, "All quiet for all these years, killing the demons. No problems. None. Bloody Slayer! All her fault. Why didn't I kill her when I had the bloody chance?"
Aurora was anchored in the center of her room, looking absolutely miserable. She couldn't look at her father. She felt too ashamed. And Spike's mumbled words were like daggers through her heart. 'He blames me? He wants me dead?' Aurora wanted to run to her room, bury her face in her pillow and cry, but she couldn't even do that because this was her room.
The girl sank down onto the floor, sobbing her frustration and sorrow into her hands. Spike rushed to Aurora's side, pulling her to his chest. "Now look what you done, you bloody poof! You made the girl cry," Spike rebuked, his eternal cerulean eyes sparkling with anger.
Aurora shoved Spike away from her. "Get off me, you two-faced shit!" she cried.
"What? Pet, what did I do?" Spike couldn't understand the young Slayer's sudden animosity.
"What did you do?" Aurora asked amazed. "You just said you wanted me dead!"
Understanding dawned in Spike's eyes. "No, luv, I didn't mean you," he explained hurriedly. "I love you. You're the best thing that's happened in my life."
Aurora's head was spinning again with answers that didn't make any sense to her. "But you said Slayer."
Spike's eyes lifted to meet Buffy's, getting the answer to the question shining in their depths. They never told their kid who they were, he realized. "Oh hell," the vampire breathed, but Aurora didn't quite hear him. She was too busy running the past few minutes over in her mind, seeking answers, or at least new questions to connect with the answers she has.
"Why did you call my dad 'Sire'? He can't be your sire. He's human." Aurora frowned, her dark eyes focussing on the vampire's face, then seeking her father's dark eyes.
"Pet," Spike felt really uncomfortable under the young Slayer's gaze. "I think you need to talk to your folks about this."
Aurora was getting very angry, her misery dried up by the fire burning in her blood. "Talk to me about what? God! I am so sick of everybody's damn secrets!"
"Aurora, honey…" her mother coaxed, trying to calm her.
But Aurora wouldn't be calmed. "No! You think your past is so terrible that it would scar me for life? Please! I survived the worst Hellspawn this place could throw at me, so I think I can survive a few skeletons in the fucking closet!" Her family was shocked into silence by the vehemence with which the girl spoke.
Aurora spun on her heel, facing a silent Spike. "And you…!" she pointed. "You lied to me. Never once did you mention… even hint… that you knew my parents. Why?! I trusted you with my life. I trusted you with my heart. I thought I knew you. I thought you trusted me, telling me all the terrible things that happened to you at the hands of your Sire, all the terrible things you did. I guess I was wrong."
Spike looked desperately at Angel, wanting to tell the young girl who held his heart everything, but not wanting to hurt her. "Pet, I…" the vampire stammered, begging Angel and Buffy to say something, anything to spare Aurora the truth.
Angel silently nodded to Spike, 'Tell her what you need to.' Spike hated his now-human Sire more in that moment than he ever did while living with the torture-happy Angelus.
Taking a deep unneeded breath, Spike said, "I never lied to you, Aurora. I couldn't be sure at first, but you looked so much like your mother. And your eyes… Then you were called and I knew. But how could I tell you knowing you would probably hate me forever. I couldn't risk losing you. So I ….. edited some stuff."
"Stuff like what, William?" Aurora spoke Spike's name with the same authority and power her father did.
Sighing, he answered, locking eyes on his former Master and enemies. "Stuff like doing everything in my power to kill your mother and father to make them pay for the hell they put me through."
Aurora's head spun. Nothing she was hearing was making any sense whatsoever. When did Spike know her parents well enough to want them dead, and why? He's never been to Australia. And her parents left the country when her mother was only 23. Her father's documents indicated that he should have been 27 then, but both her parents still looked like they were in their late twenties. 'They aged well', Aurora mused, adding another bit of weirdness to the already insane night.
But that still didn't make the mystery of her boyfriend's animosity towards and familiarity with them any clearer.
"Why would you…?" The phone's sudden shrill ring cut her off in mid-question. She glared at the ringing instrument, wanting to make it shriek in pain. She yanked the earpiece to her ear, growling a greeting.
It was her Watcher calling her to duty. Nate issued her night's orders in orderly Watcher fashion until he realized that his charge wasn't listening to a word he was saying.
"I can't believe you're not saying anything here! You expect me to do your dirty work for you?" Aurora watched Spike sneer at her parents. "She should be hearing your damned sordid past from you, not me!"
Nate's insistent, clearly annoyed voice pulled her back to the phone she still held in her hand. "Are you listening to me? Aurora!"
"What!" the young Slayer snapped. "I'll be there! God, Nate! I said I'd be there and I'll be there." Aurora glanced up to meet three pairs of eyes on her. "No," she answered the voice on the other end of the phone, every word dripping with sarcasm. "Spike's a bit busy bonding with the parentals tonight. He won't be coming with me."
Spike's face registered the hit Aurora tossed. He turned a pained gaze to Angel; a look Angel knew all to well from when the vampire was still very much enamored with the beautiful, yet disturbed, Drusilla. He just didn't know how to help his Childe without hurting his child.
"Aurora, what are you doing?" Buffy asked the busy Aurora as she gathered her coat and slingbag.
Aurora didn't stop her actions to answer her mother coldly. "What does it look like, Mom? I'm getting my stuff and I'm going out. I don't have time to drag whatever insane past you have with each other out of you."
Angel stepped up to his daughter, but she slid past him to the door. "You can't go out there, Aurora," he said sternly. "It's too…"
"Dangerous?" Aurora chipped in. "Dad, no offense, but you have no idea what goes on out there at night." She paused, her bag dangling from her shoulder. This wasn't the homecoming she'd wanted, but the uglies in the night wasn't going away and she had to go. "I don't know what your deal is, and frankly I don't care anymore. You stay here and play catch-up with each other. You decide what version of your secrets and lies you want to tell me and we'll pretend some more that everything's just hunky-dory when I get back, okay?"
"Aurora," Buffy admonished. She realized her little girl was angry, but if she was being stalked by a demon, Buffy was not planning on letting Aurora leave. "You are not leaving this room tonight, do you understand me?"
Aurora froze, her back stiff with suppressed anger and sorrow. She didn't want to hurt her parents. She loved them and every word out of her mouth tonight has cut them deeply. Not to mention her beloved Spike, her Will. She turned to face her mother, who had a restraining hand around her elbow. She shook the binding hand off her arm, saying, "I'm Aurora, the Vampire Slayer. Deal with it! Now let me go!"
With that Aurora sped from the house into the awaiting darkness, tears threatening at the corners of her eyes. She never saw the demon stealing up behind her. The crash of a rock against the back of her head was her first warning that she was not alone, but by then it was too late.
Aurora's demon stalker lifted her unconscious body, letting the Slayer's satchel of weapons slip off her shoulder to the ground. He disappeared into the night with his prize. "Soon, my lovely Slayer," he whispered to the unhearing ears, his evil laughter echoing through the night sky.