Part 3
Two hours later after she had dropped Dawn, Willow, and Tara off at her house, Buffy pulled up in front of Spike´s apartment building for the second time that day. She had timed her visit for around sunset. She had also changed clothes to a black tank top, black jeans, and boots. She left her jacket out in the car as she wasn´t figuring on staying long and needed to do some patrolling after this meeting. In her mind she had rehearsed what she was going to say but everytime she started to open the door to get out she froze, fighting her conflicting emotions. The minutes kept tickling away as she sat. She still really didn´t want to do this, but putting it off would make it worse.
Before she got cold feet for the umpteenth time, Buffy made herself get out of the car, and walk the short distance to his apartment. Why she was so nervous, even she wasn´t sure—? This was only Spike for God´s sake. When had she ever been afraid to face the vampire before under any circumstances? Though most of the time her discussions with him had not included apologies for her being such a bitch either. And she had been admittedly a super bitch to him, even after his torture at Glory´s hands, and all that he had did to help they all escape from town. The fault hadn´t lay in him it had lain in her, in her fears of letting herself feel again. Finding out that Ben, who she thought was just a nice normal guys, was anything but, and really Glory in disguise had really messed with her mind more than any of the gang knew. She had begun to be interested in him. Luckily, she had canceled out on a coffee date before it could have gotten worse.
Spike was a whole 'nother matter. She had not been completely deaf, dumb and blind to his interest her as something other than the Slayer, and his enemy. She was aware he was attracted to her when they met and all the times they had fought while she was with Angel, then during the Angelus period. When he had come to her for the truce, and met her mom, he had been polite and courteous—decidedly non vampire acting even then. He had actually bonded with her mother, and they had gotten along wonderfully even after her mom knew what he was. Her mother had always treated him like a person and like one of the gang, no matter what. When the final showdown came, Spike had kept up his end of the bargain, and left town with Drusilla while she stopped Angel. She was glad at least one of them was going to have a happy ending if she couldn´t. A small part of her had wished she had been going off with him instead of having to kill her lover to save the world. She sent Angel to Hell, and then left everyone behind without a word.
She spent the summer recovering as best she could, and finally went home to face the music alone. When Angel reappeared it was both the most wonderful, and the worst time of her life. Wonderful that Angel was back, and alive with his soul intact, but horrible in that she was hiding. and keeping his return a secret because of the way everyone felt about him. A lot of why she was fighting her attraction and feelings toward Spike dated from her times with Angel, and her guilty feelings when she was with him because of what her friends felt and said about him because he was a vampire. Angel having a soul only made him marginally better in their eyes. Souless was beyond bottom of the barrel. They had all drilled that into her, and even now she had a had time looking past that fact despite Spike´s chip and good behavior.
At first she couldn´t understand why Spike came back to town after Dru dumped him—a whole world to play in, and he had to return to turn her life upside down as well as those of her friends. Her and Angel´s relationship hadn´t been all that stable since his return from Hell, but after Spike´s visit, and 'just friends´ speech it headed downhill more rapidly, she realized. Spike hadn´t expected to find Angel, and her back together. And because of Angel being in the picture Spike had had to make new plans. That was clear from his shocked expression when she had arrived home to find Spike having cocoa with her mother. He hadn´t come for a love spell for Dru, he really had come to be with her thinking she was alone, and lonely like him.
Until recently the 'why´ of her house of all places to go had not been clear. He had come to see her. Her town, her friends, her house, her mother, her all represented home, and safety to Spike. Dru´s little speech while he had her, and ex girlfriend chained up made things finally click into place. Their arguing hadn´t been over the Chaos demon, it had been over her because he already had her in his head, and was in love with her when he left for South America. He may have been able to hide the truth from everyone, including his self, but not from Drusilla.
Not from Harmony either she had realized when she had had time to analyze the air head vamp´s comments regarding her and Spike, and why the blonde bimbo had been jealous of her off and on. Not afraid, jealous, Buffy had realized belatedly. That had been the reaction at that party where she had run into Spike and Harmony before he had gotten the ring after he had returned to town again. Spike had been jealous of Parker and Harmony had been glaring daggers at her while she cling on to Spike. At the time it hadn´t made any sense. It did now.
Did she even want to think about Willow´s spell? As it had been pointed out it had been about marriage not love—the two of them had done all the smooches, cuddling, and damn near taking off their clothes, and going at one another all on their own. The spell had only served to let them let lose their inhibitions, and let their true inner feelings surface under the safety of the spell. For that brief day she had been totally, and completely in love with Spike, and it had felt so very right, and wonderful. She had never felt so completely alive, and loved as she had in his arms. God, could he kiss, she remembered with a blush. After the spell was over she had been so crushed, and lost inside. But to pursue her mortal enemy for real would have been worse. Her friends, Giles, none of them would have never understood. So she had had to deny her feelings, and pretend it had never happened, and it had all been the spell, nothing more. Luckily, her friends bought it and her secret was safe.
Spike seemed to feel the same way. Their sniping at one another had gotten ten times worse instead of better, especially after she started going out with Riley. Spike really did hate Riley for being both human, and part of the Initative who had put the chip in his head. Most of all he had hated Riley for being able to get close to her, and do the things he really wanted to do to her. Spike moved out of Giles and away from being involved with the group because of her and Riley, though at the time she hadn´t thought about it. If the Scoobies and her had worked with Spike to fit into the human world instead on putting him down so much maybe some of the events with Adam wouldn´t have happened. Maybe her and Riley would have drifted apart sooner too with all the later pain and hurt avoided or muted by events.
She was still afraid of Spike because he could do what the others couldn´t—see through her, see into her heart, and soul like no one had ever been able to do. He could hurt her with a word, a look, a gesture, wound her like no other. There were dark, deep depths that she was deeply ashamed of…ones she didn´t want anyone to see, and she thought she had hid them well, but she never could from him.
She stood at the top of the steps that led down to his apartment asking herself why she had come here and getting very cold feet. Truth is he had been doing lots of things that didn´t even apply to her directly like the tutoring on line. That definitely didn´t have anything to do with her. Helping on patrol without her knowing it was sort of in the gray area, but ultimately it helped the people of Sunnydale survive. He had been buying and giving stuff to Dawn and her friends and not rubbing it in her face,. He hadn´t even asked for recognition by her. Okay, she had misjudged him, his motives—it was her just being a super bitch for no good reason –again. She should let it drop and just watch—from a far—yeah, that would be better than making a total fool out of herself. Deciding to leave before she really messed things up further, she turned and walked away back to her car and drove away.
"That was interesting," Spike commented to himself as he stepped out from the shadows of the building watching Buffy drive away.
He had watched her get out of the car and walked determinedly to the entrance of his apartment then stop and mutter to herself. It was clear she was still upset about earlier, and Willow had called him, and warned him that Buffy was in a fouler than usual mood. He wasn´t quite ready to talk to Buffy either, and he appreciated that Red was worried about him. He had made up his mind that no matter what happened or didn´t happen between him and Buffy he was going to continue on with what he was now doing because he was enjoying his new life and beginning to feel a part of things after almost a century of not really belonging anywhere.
He had left his trench back in the apartment, and was wearing a red T-shirt over his black shorts as part of his new image. Since he was trying to change all aspects of his life, he had let the girls drag him to the Mall a couple of weeks ago to go clothes shopping. He had protested on the shorts, but Willow had pointed out that even his old demon friends wouldn´t recognize him out on patrol which would be a good thing since he could get closer to stake them. He had to laugh at her logic and had even let them talk him into going to Hairtrends to turn his hair back to it´s natural color. When the stylist had gotten done all the girls had giggled and given him wolf whistles. Even Tara had looked him with new eyes, and if he could have blushed he would have. He had treated the girls to a big dinner after that and it had been one of the most fun evenings he had had in a long time. Because he had felt totally accepted by all of them. Now if he could only be accepted by her, he sighed.
He picked up his back pack of weapons from the ground and slung it over his shoulder. Then he started walking, headed for the cemeteries to start doing his rounds. Before he had even gotten to the first one he had managed to kill three vamps, enjoying their surprise when at the end they recognized who he was. With the warm weather there had been an increase in deaths and a rise of the vampire population. Someone was trying very hard to create minions, but he hadn´t been able to get a handle on who and where their lair was located. He knew how many he had been taking out at night, and wondered how many the Slayer had been seeing on her rounds. Xander and Willow had also reported that there seemed to be more vamps around than usual too. He had actually thought that they would all get a break like they had last summer.
Spike noted Buffy´s SRV parked by the gates of the cemetery he was about to enter, and sighed. He was debating whether to go elsewhere, and avoid her all together, when he heard the sounds of fighting. He decided to investigate, and followed the sounds until he could see Buffy battling with about five vampires, and an ugly, orange colored demon that he didn´t recognize. Standing in the shadows of a mausoleum beyond the fight was a figure in a long dark cloak looking on, but not getting into the fight. He didn´t hear any chanting, or feel magic being worked, but he did get a feeling of familiarity. One of the vamps had tripped Buffy and he saw he fall while the others pounced on her.
"Sod it all," he swore, and grabbed some stakes, and his battle ax from the backpack to jump into the middle of the fight.
Buffy knew someone had joined in on her side when the vamp holding her by the neck and getting ready to have his one good day exploded into dust. She saw a streak of red and black and bare arms and legs that she didn´t recognize take out the orange demon with a battle ax. Shaking her head she jumped back into the battle and took out two of the vamps while her mysterious helper took out the remaining one. Seeing that there were no more she slid down to the ground to collapse, panting a little.
"You okay, Slayer?" Spike asked, squatting down next to her worriedly.
"Spike? It was you?" she asked shocked as she recognized the voice ,but not the person in front of her as she tried to focus on him. It took a minute to recognize him without the white blond hair and usual black on black clothes.
"Yeah, I was passing by, heard the fighting, and saw you were have a bit of a problem so I stepped in. You okay—really? You´re not usually this winded after a simple go like this?" he asked, taking in her pale color and flushed cheeks.
"I know. I feel dizzy and strange. That orange demon clawed me. He must have been poisonous or something," she winced, lifting up her shirt so they both could see five deep claw marks that were oozing blood and looking very angry and red.
"I´m taking you to the Watcher´s then—no arguments. I didn´t recognize the demon, but it´s clear he was working with that lot. Probably a damn set up so he could get in a hit on you. They were all working for someone that was clear. There was someone lurking over by the crypt there just watching it all, but they left when we won," Spike told her, reaching out a hand to feel her clammy forehead, wishing he could tell temperature to see if she was feverish or not. "Can you stand?" he asked, getting up.
Buffy tried to stand but didn´t make it and Spike swooped her up in his arms before she could fall forward on to her face. Grabbing up their weapons packs he hurried to Buffy´s car. She was already passed out, so he felt around in her pockets and found her car keys. He laid out in the back seat then got in and drove as fast as he could to Giles gratefully that she had brought her car. Glancing down he saw that she had left her cell phone in the car charger and punched in the Watcher´s number to warn them they were coming.
After a couple of rings Giles picked up. "Rup´, I´m on my way to the shop. Buffy got clawed by some sort of orange beastie, and it´s doing a bloody number on her. Get a hold of the girls, and let them know what is happening," Spike told him as he drove.
"Orange, you said. I´ll start looking it up right away. At least that´ll narrow it down a little," Giles said trying to stay calm.
"I should be able to recognize it if I see a picture. He was with five vampires and they were working with someone. Didn´t get a good look at who, but it fits with the increase in vamp activity that has been going on recently," Spike added. "But I´ll talk to you more once I get there which should be in another couple of minutes. See you then, mate," he told him hanging up, and concentrating on his driving and taking worried looks in the rear view mirror to keep watch on Buffy who was moaning now in pain in the back seat. "Hang on. Luv, we´re almost there," he told her.
Ignoring the traffic rules he floored the SRV and arrived at the shop and parked. Carefully, he picked up the unconscious slayer and rushed her into shop as Giles opened the door for them. Anya and Xander were looking at the demon indexes as he went past them and carried Buffy to the training room to lay her down on one of the mats. They both looked up worried at Buffy´s pale looks and moaning. Giles told Anya to get some wet cloths and the first aid kit then follow him. She ran to the bathroom, and got what Giles wanted, and went to join them in the training room while Xander kept going through the books trying to narrow down the possibilities.
Giles was looking over Buffy´s wounds and frowning as there were vivid red streaks radiating from the claw marks, and it was clear that the girl was in very bad pain from the toxins spreading through her system. "We have to get these cleaned out," Giles told Anya. Then looking to Spike, "go in there and see if you can figure out what kind of demon it was," he told him and saw Spike about to protest, but then the vampire gave in, and went into the main part of the shop.
Xander had a book marked a couple of likely candidates and had the books open and ready when Spike came through the door. "How is she?" the young man asked.
"Not good. I hope the bloody demon is in these friggin books or we´re going to lose her. Someone set this whole thing up real good. Wish I could have seen who was directing the bloody show but it was too damned dark to get a good look at them, and then the bugger vanished," Spike told him. "Here, this might be the beastie," pointing to a picture in one of the books.
Xander grabbed the book and started reading. "This is not good. If this is the right one, it´s a Tumax Demon and their claws are loaded with nasty venom which unless treated can result in death within six hours," he explained looking worriedly up at Spike who had gone paler than usual.
"I´ll get Giles, you kept reading, see if there´s a bloody antidote," Spike ordered, and took off back to the training room. "Any change?" he asked as he came in the room.
"None, and she seems to be getting worse. Find anything?" Giles asked turning his head to see Spike squat down next to them.
"Yeah, I think it´s a Tumax Demon, and it´s not good. If we don´t find an antidote she´ll be a goner," Spike told him, holding his emotions in check as he looked down at the woman he loved above all others.
" A Tumax, you said?" Giles questioned and Spike nodded. "Damn, I was afraid of that. It´s one of the few demons whose venom is lethal to slayers. Someone knew what they were doing as they are very rare and hard to control," Giles told him standing up. "But with luck I can make a remedy that will remove most of the toxins out of her system, but it´s still going to leave her weak and very vulnerable. Basically, she´ll be striped of all her slayer powers, and have difficulty walking, or doing much of anything. It´s the base for drug they use on slayers when they turn eighteen."
"Shit!" Spike exclaimed angrily, knowing all about that horrible test from the group. "So for how long is she going to non-slayer?" Spike asked surprised and worried as he looked up at the Watcher.
"It depends. Could be days, could be weeks, depending on how much got into her system and how soon the remedy will begin working. Or if the remedy even works at all. The toxin that is used in the ritual is very highly diluted. This was full strength, we will just have to watch and see," he told him
"Okay, I understand. You two go get on it, and I´ll stay with her," Spike told them dismissing them all together as he sat down next to Buffy, and took a wet, cool cloth, and began wiping the sweat off of her fevered face.
Giles and Anya left Spike with Buffy, and they entered the main shop just as Willow, Tara, and Dawn came in through the front door. The older man looked very relieved to see them.
"How is Buffy?" Dawn asked, her eyes wide with fear as she ran up to him looking for her sister.
Calmly, he told the scared teenager, "she´s still alive, but unconscious, and not doing very well. Spike identified the demon that clawed her, and I am going to work on a remedy. Willow, Tara, I am going to need your help too as some of the remedy is magical in nature.
"Got it," the two young woman answered, setting down their bags. Xander showed Willow the book where Spike had found the demon and she blanched at what she was reading, looking to Xander worriedly who shook his head that the situation was not good at all.
"Can I see her?" Dawn asked anxiously, her eyes large with worry about maybe losing her sister. It had been too close a call not that long ago.
"Yes, that might be good while we prepare. She´s back in the training room with Spike," Giles told her, and she went quickly back there.
"Giles, this doesn´t look good," Willow said, looking at him.
"I know, but we at least have to try otherwise Buffy will die for sure. Shall we begin?" he asked the group, and they started looking for necessary supplies to do the remedy, and the ritual.
Dawn walked in to see Spike cradling Buffy´s head on his lap, and crying as he held her. His hand tenderly stroking her hair. She wasn´t sure whether to intrude or not. But Spike had heard her and looked up, wiping away his tears. "It´s okay, Nibblet, your sis isn´t dead. It just kind of got to me all of a sudden. The witches, they´re here too?" he asked.
"Yeah, helping Giles. They told me it´s bad. It is isn´t it?" she asked coming closer and sitting down on the mat next to them.
"Yeah, real serious. I won´t lie to you, pet. We could lose her if they can´t get the poison stopped in time. And if they do get it neutralized she´s not going to be able to do any slaying for awhile and is going to need everyone´s help," he told her truthfully.
Dawn nodded solemnly, understanding what he was saying, "Got it? Has she woke up at all?"
"No, just moans and mumbles like she´s seeing or talking to something. I know she´s bloody well burning up. Just hope it doesn´t take too long to get whatever they need to make done. 'Afraid to take her to bloody hospital, but if they don´t friggin´ hurry I´m going to," he said, trying to keep his voice from cracking.
"I know, but let´s face it Sunnydale Memorial isn´t all up on demon venoms so, it wouldn´t do a bit of good if we took her," Dawn told him sounding more mature than her fifteen years.
"Yeah, your right. How´d you get so smart, little bit?" he looked up with a faint smile.
She shrugged, "dunno, but it shouldn´t be too much longer. They´ll fix her. They just got to," the girl said, not sure whether she was reassuring herself or the vampire.
The same robed figure that had been in the cemetery earlier looked through the training room windows from the alley, watching and observing everything and muttering angrily to themselves. They had hoped that the Slayer´s friends wouldn´t be able to identify the demon in time, and be able to make a cure for the venom. The figure wanted the Slayer dead, but even if they found the cure the slayer would still be human normal, very vulnerable, and easy to kill for quite a while. Either way the annoying human girl was going to die. She would succeed where others had failed, and she would get her family back--- all of them.
The young girl in the room was a puzzle. She didn´t know her. She was sure of that. Instead of normal human, when she looked at her she saw swirling green energy, and odd realms. There was strong magicks about her, untapped ancient forces—power, lots and lots of delicious power like sweet candy it called to her. She wanted it. She was going to have all that wonderful power, and now with the slayer out of the way nothing could stop her. Her yellow eyes gleamed in the darkness sparking with jealousy as she watched her former lover try to help his new one.