Soul Sacrifice

Chapter 2 – Whispering in the Shadows

Buffy decided to do a quick patrol before she went home. Willow and Tara would leave that night, so she'd want to be able to stay with Dawn later. Plus, she wanted some brooding time.

Willow and Tara were witches, but they still got a chance at a normal life. A normal relationship. A normal relationship in Palm Springs. Buffy never had time to work things out in her love life. "Riley feeling insufficient? Oh, sorry. He's leaving tonight on a helicopter." Buffy thought bitterly. "Angel lost his soul. Maybe we can take some time to fix things today. Oh. Wait. Today's no good. I have to send him to Hell today. How does next week sound?" And then there was Spike… Who was standing right in front of her.

"Hello Buffy," Spike greeted tentatively, but not entirely friendly.

"Hey Spike," Buffy said in much the same way. He didn't act like he was looking for a fight, at least. Yet. And she could say the same thing about herself. She was tired, and wanted to see how things would pan out. After all, he had been so sweet at the wedding. Sure he tried to pull his little stunt. It was Spike. But when he realized it had hurt her, he was sorry. He told her he was glad to see her happy. Told her she glowed. Then it was suddenly so easy to joke with him again, like old times. They'd made each other laugh. Then. Then he told her he was evil, in a tone that didn't convince either one of them. Sometimes he made it so hard to remember why she couldn't be with him. Then a terrible thought suddenly hit her.

"Wait a second," she started angrily. "You're not following me around and being super nice to me, or, well, not ultra nasty to me, to get me to think you've changed, are you?! You're trying to tempt me! I know it! Think if you could just get me into bed one more time I'd never leave you again? Well think again! I'm a lot stronger than that. You can just get off your high horse if you think a little sweet talk and a few of your sexy looks will make me fall for you. 'Oh, you glow,' uh huh… yuck." She finished, surprising herself, not sure where it all came from.

Spike just stood there, mouth gaping open. "What in the Hell did I do to bring on this random onslaught?" he thought. Then, "Slayer, all I did was say hello…"

"Nah!" she shouted, holding up a hand to silence him. "I've heard enough from you. Leave me alone." Then she turned on her heals and stormed off in the other direction.

"What. Just. Happened. Here." Spike said to himself. Quickly he shifted through shock and hurt and moved right into anger.

Spike was stealthy and Buffy was taken by surprise when Spike tackled her to the ground from behind.

"Now you listen here, Slayer, and you listen good. I'm so bloody tired of you're just tossing me aside. Who's to say you're better than me, huh? I'm immortal, and higher up on the food chain, I might add. You better hope I don't stop loving you, or I could kill you mighty quick." He barked in her ear. "And another thing. You get off your high horse, thinking I'm only out to get in your pants. Don't flatter yourself." He said incredulously, before turning her over on her back, facing him on the ground. "And you can bet," he started again, right in her face, "That if I was trying to seduce you, you wouldn't be so strong about resisting, and you wouldn't be so quick to throw me away. Not this time," he said, before giving her a fierce kiss.

The whole thing didn't surprise Buffy too much, as she started kissing back almost immediately, and to that, Spike laughed against her mouth. Then he could feel Buffy smile before shouting, "Oh Spike!" in a mocking, high-pitched tone and shoving him off of her.

"Thought you said I wouldn't be able resist you once you put the moves on," Buffy asked bitterly, getting up and brushing herself off, angrily watching him do the same.

"Oh, you won't be able to, pet, 'cause just then," He said, stepping very close to her. Then he whispered in her ear, "Just then, I wasn't even trying, and look how easily you gave it up."

With that, Buffy pushed him to the ground. "You know Spike, you say you love me, but I highly doubt you could love me and still act this creepy. So by your logic, if you don't love me, you think I should start fearing for my life? Well let me tell you something. The day that I even begin to think that you'd EVER be a threat to me, I'll kill you." She finished, looking down on him with disdain, and maybe with something mixed with hurt.

Spike wasn't sure why, but he'd suddenly softened up. "I never meant for it to be like this, you know." He said, looking up at her, making no attempt to move.

"You know, Spike, part of me believes that and wants to apologize to you again for how things worked out, but another part of me thinks you're lying. It knows that you love this. The fighting, the tension, the pain being inflicted on both of us. That part of me knows that you live off of it, and wouldn't trade it for the world. So go live off of it, Spike. Go suffer. Go plan more plots; like that egg fiasco. Feed on my pain having to clean up after you… And then call me when you get that chip out, so I can have a really good slay." Then she walked off, this time, without Spike following.