CHAPTER TEN: CHALLENGE
Buffy watched Spike pace the confines of the mansion, worry stretched across his face. Buffy had never seen him looking like that, and to say that it was freaking her out was an understatement. He kept casting glances to the front door, just waiting for his senses to realise that it was nearly sunset.
Buffy continued to watch him until her movements finally snapped something inside of her.
"Will you just sit down for a minute?" she cried.
He looked up at her, startled, almost having forgotten that she was there with him. An almost impossible task since she was what had been occupying his thoughts. He didn't want to lose her and he wasn't entirely sure of what that meant.
He sighed and sat beside her on the couch, his leg shaking. She put a hand onto his knee to calm him down and his eyes came to meet hers, fear shining through his bright blue eyes.
"You're going to win Spike. You're stronger than he is," she assured him.
He sat back in the couch, wishing he could just take her up on the offer for them to skip town and never return. They could outrun Angelus if they needed to. But, Buffy was needed in Sunnydale. She needed Sunnydale, or at least the people in Sunnydale.
"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Spike said quietly.
Buffy took hold of his hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. "Hey, I've fought both of you, and I know who's stronger. With you, I always had to give it my all. You gave as good as you got, but Angel…I never had to fight him with everything."
"But you almost lost once," he reminded her.
She gave him a lopsided smile. "I was having a crappy day."
He smirked, and raised his eyebrows in surprise when the Slayer nestled comfortably onto his lap, her head burrowing into his shoulder. He gently leant his chin onto her shoulder.
They sat there comfortably Buffy nearly falling asleep in the comfort of his arms. He sighed and pushed her to her feet when he realised that it was beginning to get dark.
"Time for me to go luv," he said.
He shrugged his duster onto his shoulders and went to walk out the door.
"What do you mean, for you? I'm going too," she said.
He shook his head and walked over to her, cupping her cheek in his hand. "I don't want you anywhere near him pet. Stay here 'right?"
She shook her head and went to speak but was stopped when his lips met hers. All thoughts disappeared except the knowledge of his lips dancing with hers. She sighed as he pulled away, her mind turned to complete mush.
"You stay here. I'll be back as soon as I can," he whispered against her mouth.
Knowing that she wouldn't be allowed to follow she nodded her head and watched as he stepped back and out the door into the early evening.
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Spike stepped into the darkness, his mind a complete whirl of emotions. He had only been back in Sunnydale for one night and already his world had turned upside down. He had come wanting to kill the Slayer and now, in some bizarre twist of fate, he was ready to claim her as his mate.
He was also about to go up against his Sire to protect that claim. Unlife could not get any weirder.
He walked out the gate of the mansion, not even noticing the presence of another vampire as he left and began wandering to the cemetery. They had once met there and fought when Angel had still had his soul in tact. Neither one could bring themselves to kill the other and it had ended in an uneasy truce. Or, more to the point, they had growled at each other and eventually Angel had sauntered away.
Spike let out a low growl and quickly jumped over a hedge to get into the cemetery, moving quickly to the place they had first met. He perched himself on top of a headstone and began to wait.
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Buffy paced around the mansion, wanting desperately to follow Spike and watch the challenge take place, but she knew that, when provoked, Spike could be a formidable fighter.
Her stomach growled lowly, and with a groan of resignation, she moved to Spike's refrigerator and grabbed a packet of the blood he kept there for emergencies. She poured it into a mug and heated it, the smell of it making her stomach growl even louder. The microwave gave a shrill ping and she took the mug out.
She sighed and flopped onto the couch, staring up at the ceiling. A noise from the entrance caught her attention and she looked up at the doorway, but saw nothing. She listened carefully and heard a quiet footstep coming towards her.
Her entire body tensed, and she grabbed her jacket that still held one of her stakes. She jumped into a defensive position, stake raised, the mug of blood place on the floor next to her foot.
She watched the doorway, never letting her eyes leave the small space. She didn't want to be surprised by anything.
She heard a low chuckle coming from behind her, and before she even had the chance to turn, she felt something heavy and sharp hit her head. Her stake clattered to the floor, her limp body following it, landing in a heap.
"Sorry Buff," a whispered voice said quietly. Through hazy eyes, she saw Angel leaning over her body, a concrete statue in his hands. "Nothing personal."
With that, she blacked out.
~*~
Spike leapt off the headstone, beginning to pace to and fro, between one headstone and the next. He looked up at the sky, now completely black. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, not even caring if it messed up his perfectly slicked back hair.
"Where are you, you stupid git?" he whispered softly.
He was becoming impatient, his demon ready to fight over something that was his. He hadn't claimed her yet, seeing as everything had happened so quickly between them, but it was definitely on his 'to do' list.
A twig snapped behind him and he whirled around only to find a fledgling vampire beginning to crawl out of its grave. Sighing, and not even sure why he cared, he walked towards it and swiftly put a stake through its heart before the wretched creature even had a chance to completely vacate its patch of earth.
He continued to pace and suddenly something in him snapped up suddenly.
He would have almost laughed except that he was distracted by the innate fear that gripped at his heart and he took off in a hurried run towards the mansion.
He couldn't believe he had fallen for Angelus' tricks. It wasn't the first time Angelus had posed a divisionary threat to get someone away from something. Angelus had taken Buffy away from her Watcher to ensure that Drusilla could capture him.
Within minutes, he was back in the mansion, loudly calling Buffy's name, though part of him knew it was hopeless. He could smell her blood in the air, could smell fear in the walls of the house.
He stopped short when he saw the fallen stake on the ground, a broken mug with dried blood on the floor, and another smaller patch of blood about two feet away from that.
He clutched at the back of his head, tempted to scream at the ceiling, to curse the fates. He shouldn't even care this much. Had it been anyone but the Slayer he would have shrugged his shoulders and told his Sire that he could have the girl, but Buffy was completely different.
He grabbed the stake from the floor and ran back into the darkness, heading towards the Watcher's for the second time in two days.
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Giles opened the door to see a distraught looking blonde vampire on the doorstep. Giles heart clenched in fear, knowing that the vampire could only be there for one reason. Buffy.
"He took her," Spike managed to get out before Giles could even ask him to confirm his suspicions.
"He who?" Giles asked.
"Who do you think?" Spike asked angrily. His demon nearly came to the surface at the thought of Angelus having his hands anywhere near his Slayer. "The bloody poof. I went to meet his challenge and he didn't show up. He took her!"
"Good lord," Giles said softly.
Spike nodded quickly, his hands fidgeting nervously.
"I don't know where he would've taken her," he said desperately. "I woulda said the mansion, but they weren't there, I would've smelt 'em for sure. And the old factories useless, falling in and all that. I checked out his apartment and he wasn't there either. I don't know where else to go."
Giles thought for a moment, unsure as to how Angelus' mind worked. All Giles knew was that the demon would take great joy in breaking the girl. He shuddered at the thought. He tried to clear his mind, attempting to think of a place where Angelus would take Buffy. He couldn't even imagine a place where Angelus would feel he wouldn't be found.
"You've known him longer than I," Giles said. "Did he…did he have any favourite places in the past? Anywhere that he would have felt…safe?"
Spike rolled his eyes at the word 'safe' though he knew what Giles meant. Somewhere where he wouldn't be interrupted.
"He's smart but impatient as hell. You've seem him when he doesn't get what he wants. Spoiled brat is all he is, bloody git. He won't be anywhere obvious, won't be somewhere that we think to look," Spike said.
Giles nodded and grabbed his jacket from the coat rack. He stepped out the door, locking it behind him.
"Where are we going?" Spike asked.
"To get Willow and Xander. They have the right to know about this, and…perhaps they would be able to think of something that we can't," Giles explained.