Title: A Passing Shadow: Book I: Deep Down Dark: Chapter 9
Author: VicNoir
Rating: R
Disclaimers, etc.: please see previous chapters.
I wasn't too concerned. I mean, how far could a blind vampire go in the middle of a sunny afternoon?
Pretty far, as it turned out.
Tara was waiting for me downstairs.
"Where is he?" The whole time I was in the bathroom, I'd been thinking about what to say to him to make it right.
"He's gone."
"What d'you mean, gone?"
"He was pretty upset, Buffy. He threatened to walk outside in the sunlight if Willow didn't take him away from here."
"Where?"
She hesitated and I grabbed her by the shoulders. But all of a sudden, shy, sweet Tara grew a resolve-face of her own. "We wrapped him in a blanket and put him in the car, and Willow drove away. He's safe. That's all you need to know."
"Look, Tara-"
"No, YOU look, Buffy. I had a bad feeling about this spell from the beginning. I should have spoken up and that's my fault, but I'm not going to make it worse by letting you chase after him. He needs to recover-"
"HE needs to recover?! Do you know what just happened? And why are you protecting him, anyway, after HE attacked ME?" OK, that was cheap, and I knew it, but I'm not used to being challenged like that.
"You look OK to me." Wow. She wasn't gonna give an inch.
I started pacing around the living room. "Listen Tara, I'm not going to hurt him or anything. I just want to talk to him. I know he's upset-I'm pretty wigged myself. But we can work this out-"
"Maybe you can, maybe you can't, but you both need space right now."
She sounded so certain. I sat down on the sofa and ran my hand over the blood stains that refused to come out, no matter how many times I scrubbed at them. The upholstery never completely dried, 'cause I was always making Spike get up so I could scrub some more.
"The spell was a bad idea."
"It was. But it's not all your fault. I've told Willow so many times that she has to do more research before she casts."
"What am I gonna do, Tara?"
"Do you love him?"
Whoa. Talk about cutting right to the chase.
"I don't know. I don't think I know how to love anymore. It's just too damn hard."
"That's crap." Dawn was standing in the doorway, looking at me like I was a bug she wanted to squash.
"How long have you been listening to my private conversation?"
"Long enough to get sick to my stomach. I can't believe you, Buffy. What happened to all that stuff you told me right before you took the big plunge, huh? All that stuff about how the hardest thing to do in life is live, and how we should all live for you?"
"Dawn, you don't understand-"
"What don't I understand? That you came back from the dead just so you could walk around like a zombie? That you're all hat and no cattle?"
That was one of the little Spike-isms she'd picked up. When I first got back from...wherever...it drove me crazy how much she'd started to talk like him. But right then, it just made me smile.
"Why don't you love him, anyway? He seems pretty loveable to me."
"He's a vampire, Dawn."
"Well, duh."
And all of a sudden, something clicked. 'Cause I knew that Dawn didn't mean 'duh, he's a vampire.' She meant 'duh, that's why you should love him.'
And I got it. I understood that I should love Spike-I maybe even did love Spike, but let's not go all the way there just yet-because he was this amazing, astonishing creature: a vampire that could love me. Love the Slayer. The Slayer that was me.
Yeah, I know, Angel loved me too. But not enough to stick around and fight it out. Nope, when the going got tough, Angel got going. And then there was the little matter of his demon side, which most definitely did not love me.
But Spike was all demon, all the time, and loved me anyway.
Pretty cool.
All of that flashed through my brain in about five seconds flat.
I turned to Tara. "I need to talk to Giles, like, now."
"Well, right this second he's down at the police station bailing Xander out."
"Xander? Oh, yeah...Willow said..."
"That's the other reason the spell was a bad idea."
"Huh?"
"Come on, I'll explain on the way."
I surprised Dawn with a hug on the way out.
"So, when am I going to meet this Ricky guy?" She turned all red and swore under her breath in a very British way.
"Dawn!"
"Spike promised he wouldn't tell-I'm gonna kill that stupid vampire."
"Thought you said he was so loveable." She stuck out her tongue at me and ran upstairs.
The stroll to the magic shop was very informative. Seems Tara had used a business card of Xander's-Xander Harris, apprentice carpenter, no job too small--to mark a page in Spike's book of poetry, and left it there. So the spell Willow cast...
"...turned Xander into a big old horn-dog too, huh?"
"Apparently. All I know is that Xander called Willow from jail 'cause he'd been arrested for lewd behavior. We figured it must have something to do with the spell, so we checked the book, and sure enough..."
"Poor Xander."
Or not. Because the next time I saw Xander, he was having a great time. The one you had to feel sorry for was Giles.
tbc
Author: VicNoir
Rating: R
Disclaimers, etc.: please see previous chapters.
I wasn't too concerned. I mean, how far could a blind vampire go in the middle of a sunny afternoon?
Pretty far, as it turned out.
Tara was waiting for me downstairs.
"Where is he?" The whole time I was in the bathroom, I'd been thinking about what to say to him to make it right.
"He's gone."
"What d'you mean, gone?"
"He was pretty upset, Buffy. He threatened to walk outside in the sunlight if Willow didn't take him away from here."
"Where?"
She hesitated and I grabbed her by the shoulders. But all of a sudden, shy, sweet Tara grew a resolve-face of her own. "We wrapped him in a blanket and put him in the car, and Willow drove away. He's safe. That's all you need to know."
"Look, Tara-"
"No, YOU look, Buffy. I had a bad feeling about this spell from the beginning. I should have spoken up and that's my fault, but I'm not going to make it worse by letting you chase after him. He needs to recover-"
"HE needs to recover?! Do you know what just happened? And why are you protecting him, anyway, after HE attacked ME?" OK, that was cheap, and I knew it, but I'm not used to being challenged like that.
"You look OK to me." Wow. She wasn't gonna give an inch.
I started pacing around the living room. "Listen Tara, I'm not going to hurt him or anything. I just want to talk to him. I know he's upset-I'm pretty wigged myself. But we can work this out-"
"Maybe you can, maybe you can't, but you both need space right now."
She sounded so certain. I sat down on the sofa and ran my hand over the blood stains that refused to come out, no matter how many times I scrubbed at them. The upholstery never completely dried, 'cause I was always making Spike get up so I could scrub some more.
"The spell was a bad idea."
"It was. But it's not all your fault. I've told Willow so many times that she has to do more research before she casts."
"What am I gonna do, Tara?"
"Do you love him?"
Whoa. Talk about cutting right to the chase.
"I don't know. I don't think I know how to love anymore. It's just too damn hard."
"That's crap." Dawn was standing in the doorway, looking at me like I was a bug she wanted to squash.
"How long have you been listening to my private conversation?"
"Long enough to get sick to my stomach. I can't believe you, Buffy. What happened to all that stuff you told me right before you took the big plunge, huh? All that stuff about how the hardest thing to do in life is live, and how we should all live for you?"
"Dawn, you don't understand-"
"What don't I understand? That you came back from the dead just so you could walk around like a zombie? That you're all hat and no cattle?"
That was one of the little Spike-isms she'd picked up. When I first got back from...wherever...it drove me crazy how much she'd started to talk like him. But right then, it just made me smile.
"Why don't you love him, anyway? He seems pretty loveable to me."
"He's a vampire, Dawn."
"Well, duh."
And all of a sudden, something clicked. 'Cause I knew that Dawn didn't mean 'duh, he's a vampire.' She meant 'duh, that's why you should love him.'
And I got it. I understood that I should love Spike-I maybe even did love Spike, but let's not go all the way there just yet-because he was this amazing, astonishing creature: a vampire that could love me. Love the Slayer. The Slayer that was me.
Yeah, I know, Angel loved me too. But not enough to stick around and fight it out. Nope, when the going got tough, Angel got going. And then there was the little matter of his demon side, which most definitely did not love me.
But Spike was all demon, all the time, and loved me anyway.
Pretty cool.
All of that flashed through my brain in about five seconds flat.
I turned to Tara. "I need to talk to Giles, like, now."
"Well, right this second he's down at the police station bailing Xander out."
"Xander? Oh, yeah...Willow said..."
"That's the other reason the spell was a bad idea."
"Huh?"
"Come on, I'll explain on the way."
I surprised Dawn with a hug on the way out.
"So, when am I going to meet this Ricky guy?" She turned all red and swore under her breath in a very British way.
"Dawn!"
"Spike promised he wouldn't tell-I'm gonna kill that stupid vampire."
"Thought you said he was so loveable." She stuck out her tongue at me and ran upstairs.
The stroll to the magic shop was very informative. Seems Tara had used a business card of Xander's-Xander Harris, apprentice carpenter, no job too small--to mark a page in Spike's book of poetry, and left it there. So the spell Willow cast...
"...turned Xander into a big old horn-dog too, huh?"
"Apparently. All I know is that Xander called Willow from jail 'cause he'd been arrested for lewd behavior. We figured it must have something to do with the spell, so we checked the book, and sure enough..."
"Poor Xander."
Or not. Because the next time I saw Xander, he was having a great time. The one you had to feel sorry for was Giles.
tbc