Alrighty, once again, I've written two version of this chapter. This is the one to read if you DO NOT like Buffy and Spike together. There's a teensy bit of shipiness cos I am a B/Ser, but not enough to make you hate me. If you WANT to read the B/S version, it's posted at my site so, for those of you who wanna read the B/S version go to: http://www.angelfire.com/ks3/schoolies/btvs/itb36spike_bs.html
I am warning you right now that it won't end fluffily, so don't expect it to. It will pick up back in Chap 37 in this version here and WILL NOT be mentioned, but I just really felt motivated to write a B/S chapter cos I've had a few suggestions from some different people. Anyways…I'll stop typing this now and let you get on with the reading of this version or the B/S one.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX: SPIKE
Wednesday: 7pm
30th January 1999
California: Sunnydale
Buffy and Giles had spent almost the entire day training and Buffy was becoming accustomed to fighting without her strength. She still had all the skills that she had previously possessed, and was somewhat grateful for all of her training from the Council. By six-thirty in the evening, Giles was bordering on a nervous break-down. He didn't want to send Buffy to the boarding house to complete the Cruciamentum, but he knew that this had been the done thing for over two thousand years.
"Do you think I should patrol?" Buffy asked.
Giles looked up at her, startled by the sudden voice in the room that had previously been silent.
"What? Oh, uh…yes. Yes, you probably should. You're still remarkably strong, even if you aren't as strong as you were yesterday," he said.
Buffy nodded and went to the weapons chest, pulling out a few of her favourites. She was surprised by how heavy some of them seemed in comparison to when she usually took them out slaying.
"There's actually somewhere that I wanted you to have a look at," Giles said before Buffy walked out the door. "There's an old boarding house on Prescott Lane. Some people have been complaining of disturbances for the last few days."
"Don't you think we should wait for a day or two? Just til I get my strength back? If there's a nest or something, I won't be able to take all of them on," she reminded him.
"Perhaps just do a little re-con and come back for tonight," Giles suggested.
Buffy shrugged and nodded. "Alright. You're the Watcher."
With that, she left, heading towards Prescott Lane. Giles could only sit on the edge of his couch and wait until she returned. Travers had expressly forbidden him to go anywhere near the boarding house. Giles sighed and began to pray.
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(I suck at writing fight scenes, so my apologies)
Buffy crept towards the boarding house, feeling nervous. She'd never really felt nervous on patrol before, but now she was a lot weaker than usual. With her heart hammering in her chest, she pushed open the front door and crept into the darkened building. She took one of the stakes from her pocket and wedged it into the door to keep it from slamming shut on her in case the door jammed.
She went further into the building, her crossbow at the ready. She listened intently for any sounds around her, her steady breathing the only thing filling the silence.
She walked further in, going from room to room. Half of them were locked tight, and the rooms that weren't shut were empty. She came to the end of the corridor and saw a flight of stairs. Taking a deep breath, she went to descend them, but before she had a chance to even put a foot on the first step, she was tackled from behind and she and her attacker tumbled down the stairs.
She landed heavily, her assailant on top of her. The hairs on the back of her neck still tingled even though she had lost her strength. Vampire. She quickly moved away from the creature and regrouped, shooting a bolt from her crossbow at the vamp. It dodged and lunged towards her.
Buffy flung the crossbow away and quickly grabbed one of her stakes from her pockets.
Vampire and Slayer circled each other, the vampire attacking quickly, but Buffy blocked all of its hits. She managed to get in a roundhouse kick to the vampire's head, sending it stumbling backwards into a wall. After a five minute dance, the vampire was dust in the wind. She breathed a sigh of relief and wondered whether there were other vampires here.
Her question was answered in fairly short order when she felt the familiar tingling on the back of her neck. From behind her, she heard someone clapping slowly. She turned to face the creature and tried not to let the shock she felt show on her face.
In front of her was a young man, no more than twenty-five. He had bleached blonde hair and was wearing a black ensemble with a red over-shirt beneath his full-length leather duster. He wasn't in game-face, an obvious sign that this vampire wasn't a fledgling. She tried not to dwell on the fact that this was the third vampire that she had felt attracted to in the space of two and a half years.
"Nice work luv," he complimented her. British.
"Who are you?" she asked sharply. He just grinned cockily at her.
"You'll find out in about ten minutes," he assured her.
She knew this game all too easily. She really did prefer English-speaking vampires.
"What happens in ten minutes?" she asked, knowing the answer only too well. Only, this time, she was afraid that the vampire would be right.
"I kill you."
She just smirked at him and tilted her head to the side.
"Why wait until then?" she asked. "Come on. Kick my ass."
The vampire grinned and nodded moving slowly towards her. He looked at the stake in her hands.
"Do we really need weapons for this?" he asked.
"I just like them," she replied glibly. "They make me fell all slayerly."
The circled each other, sizing the other up. He was a good foot taller than she was and he looked incredibly intimidating.
"You got a name?" she asked.
He grinned. "Name's Spike," he replied.
"Spike," she repeated. She thought about it for a moment. "Spike. William the Bloody. I've heard about you."
"Been doing your homework then, luv?"
"William the Bloody, sired in 1880 by Drusilla, childe of Angelus of Aurelius. Earned his nickname by torturing people with railroad spikes. The Slayer of Slayers. You've killed, what? Four Slayers," she said.
"Five," he replied.
She looked at him, impressed. "I hadn't heard about the fifth."
"Well, that's five including you pet," he said, grinning.
She just shook her head, trying to look confident.
"I'm not letting you walk out of this building," she told him.
"You really think you can stop me?" he asked.
She shrugged. She honestly didn't know whether she would walk away from this fight. She desperately hoped so.
They circled each other once more and then simultaneously they lunged towards each other. The dance was on.
Spike had to admit that the girl was a good fighter. He'd fought four other Slayers and none of them moved like this girl. The others had been the properly trained Council girls that had perfect martial arts techniques but no imagination. This Slayer was a dancer. An involuntary grin came to his face.
"You're good, Slayer," he complimented as Buffy managed to backhand him across the cheek, sending Spike tumbling into the wall behind them.
"Thanks," she replied, bouncing back into the fight.
She was feeling the fight like she'd never felt them before. Pain was shooting through her body, but she refused to give in to him. He grabbed her and threw her across the room, her small frame colliding with a metal pole that was supporting the ceiling. She fell to the ground with a loud thump.
Spike advanced on her and grabbed her neck. He shoved her against the pole and vamped out.
"As a personal favour from me to you I'll make it quick. It won't hurt a bit," he assured her.
Buffy panicked for a moment before remembering her training. She threw her head forward violently and slammed her forehead against his, stunning Spike and sending him backwards. She moved away from the pole and grabbed her stake.
"No Spike," she replied. "It's gonna hurt a lot."
They continued their dance, Buffy slowly being backed into the wall. Spike went to punch her, but she quickly ducked, Spike's hand going through the plaster wall. Buffy quickly ducked behind him and sent a spinning kick to the back of his neck. Spike looked vaguely impressed.
"Now that hurt."
His hand closed around something in the wall and he yanked out a two-by-four. He swung it quickly at the Slayer, sending her sprawling into the wall. He advanced on her, swinging the wood back again. She ducked the first swing, but the second one caught her stomach.
"But not as much as this will."
The next hit immobilised her completely, the Slayer sprawled in the corner of the basement. Buffy tried to force herself to get up, but the pain in her body was too great. Her body fell limply to the floor and she struggled to breath. She could tell that she'd cracked a rib.
Spike stood above her and looked down at her broken body.
"You're a good dancer pet," he complimented. "Never met a Slayer who moved like you. Too bad that you're gonna meet the same bloody end as they did."
She looked up at him, her vision beginning to blur. She was going to pass out, she knew it, but she refused to give in that easily.
"You had to wait until I was weak to beat me," she said quietly, his vampiric hearing the only reason he even heard the quiet comment.
He looked down at her startled.
"Weak? What are you on about Slayer?" he asked.
"You think this is my full strength?" she asked. "Is that how you killed them? Did you wait until they didn't have their strength as well?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," he said dangerously.
She forced herself to stand up, holding onto the wall to keep her steady. She met his eyes easily.
"Why'd you come to Sunnydale, Spike?" she asked.
"To kill you," he replied easily.
"How'd you know where I was gonna be?"
He thought about that for a moment. Someone had tipped him off, and he'd come running to Sunnydale. He couldn't remember who had told him or why. He'd just had a compulsion to come to Sunnydale. He'd had that compulsion four other times in the last two hundred and twenty years as well. Each time, he had killed a Slayer.
"What are you getting at luv?" he asked.
"Do you wait for the Slayers to lose their strength before you kill them?" she asked angrily. "Is that how you defeat them?"
He backhanded her, hating that she was calling him a cheat. She coughed and spat out a mouthful of blood.
"Come on Spike, tell me. Is that how you beat them? You waited until they'd lost their strength too and then you killed them. Not exactly fair is it?" she asked.
Spike growled and shoved her against the wall, his hand resting beside her head, their faces so close that Buffy could feel his cold un-needed breath on her lips. She tried to move away from him, but with the wall behind her, and his arm blocking her exit, she had no choice but to stay where she was.
"Are you calling me unsporting?" he asked angrily.
"Well, you're the one who's waiting until they can't defend themselves properly," she said calmly. Her heart was beating loudly and she knew that he would be able to hear it. "It's not really cricket is it?"
He glared at her and pushed his face closer to hers. He pulled back suddenly and began laughing.
"Oh, you're good Slayer," he complimented genuinely. "Nearly had me fooled there. Trying to get me to think I'm cheating. Just cos you lot can't handle my strength."
He lowered his mouth to her neck and Buffy tensed, expecting his fangs to dig into her flesh. The pain didn't come. Instead, she felt his lips on her neck, kissing gently. She tensed, having no idea of what he was doing.
She tried to push him away, but he growled angrily and caught hold of her wrists, and leant his entire weight onto her hands to keep them from moving. She was effectively caught between the wall and his body, one of his hands grasping both of her wrists between their bodies, and his other hand on the wall beside her head.
"I like you, Slayer," he whispered, continuing to kiss her neck. "You're not like the other ones. You've got this fiery passion. There's something dark in you, my little dragon."
"I'm not yours," she replied, trying to push him away again.
His fangs dug into her neck sharply and she cried out in pain. He didn't drink at all, just kept his fangs in her flesh. He took a tiny sip and devamped, licking at the two puncture marks.
She saw only two ways out of this. Either anger him even more and have him kill her on the spot, or play his game and have a chance at coming out of this on top.
She rolled her head to the side, granting him better access. The hand on the wall came to tangle in her hair while the other kept hold of her wrists tightly. She was surprised that he didn't sink his fangs into her and drain her dry.
Her hands moved slowly, deliberately, beginning to play with the bottom of Spike's black t-shirt. His grip loosened, and she completely freed her wrists, bring one hand to his back, sliding under his shirt. Spike let out a soft but approving growl. He didn't notice that Buffy's other hand had moved behind her to the spare stake that was hidden at the back of her pants.
She pulled it out slowly and brought her hand to his back, careful to not let him know that she was holding it. He brought his lips up to meet hers and the second their lips met, she found her strength and shoved the stake through his back into his heart.
In the seconds that it took for Spike to dust, he shot her a surprised and impressed look. As soon as crumbled completely, she let out a breath of relief. She walked as fast as she could away from the building towards home, silently praying that no vampires would attack her while she had little to no energy to fight them back. She somehow managed to make it home in one piece.
(Lots of the dialogue was taken from "School Hard" and in no way do I own those pieces of speech.)
I took stacks of liberty with Spike and his background. If you don't recognise it, I probably made it up just cos it worked kinda nicely. I've always wanted to do a version of Helpless where Spike was the vamp she had to battle, and it fit in quite well I think…dunno. My apologies to B/Sers who wanted him alive for more than one chapter!!