FOOLS FOR LIFE:

CHAPTER 38: DREAMZONE

He knew he had only just returned to the motel room. He remembered it clearly. D'Hoffryn had given him all the info he needed to get the stone and did his 'gesture' thing and he was back in the motel room.

He also recalled seeing that Buffy was no longer on the bed. His duster, which he had put over her was still spread out over the sheets, but Buffy was gone. His first impulse was a slight panic. And he wondered if D'Hoffryn had lied about the protection spell around the room. Maybe someone had taken her.

Then he heard a sound behind him. Where the entrance to the bathroom was.

And then he had been hit on the head. And pretty hard too. Hard enough to knock him out cold. It wasn't a fist that hit him. More like an object. Maybe the TV. That's what it felt like.

As he slowly regained consciousness, and the spots in front of his eyes started to dissipate a little, he noticed two things.

The first was that he was sitting on the ground with his back up to a corner of the bed, handcuffed to the frame, with his hands behind his back.

The second was that he was naked.

The room was dark. Night had come again. Had he been with D'Hoffryn that long? Or had he been out cold that long? He shook his head trying to clear it. He couldn't, not completely. He smelled and felt some blood on his head. Not much, nothing to worry about. Obviously from the hit he'd taken.

He strained and looked around the room. It was dark and while that usually wasn't a problem for him he was still dizzy. Then he heard a whisper. "What did you do to me?"

"Buffy....? Is that....?" he said, and looked to where the voice came from. There on his right, in the corner next to the nightstand. She was still dressed as she was, all in black, hard to see. Some light from a lamp outside shone in through the curtains. The leather of her pants and boots was shiny and reflected some of it. He could tell her legs were scrunched up. Then she spoke again and he saw some light hit her eye as her head moved.

"What did you DO to me?"

"Buffy, luv, listen, I know you've got t'be pissed, but I did it to help you and I can now. Let me explain, I..."

"I'm not soulless!" she suddenly said.

"What..?"

"How can you say that, why can't you see I really love you.....I mean.....me.....you.....really love me. Why didn't I see that I did? I mean...you did...no...."

'Bloody hell' he thought. "Buffy listen to me. You're Buffy, I'm Spike. We're in a room. Snap out of it luv, we really need to...."

"I know we're in a room!" she snapped, suddenly lucid. "I woke up on the bed, chained like some ....some...."

"I'm sorry, I had to do it. I had a plan...."

"You left the keys to the cuffs in your duster......sloppy." Spike silently cursed himself. Bloody brilliant. Why did he always goof up in the little things when it counted? She sat up straighter and he could see her face in the light now.

"You drugged me! And kidnapped me! And I woke here, alone and tied up!"

"I know luv, I'm sorry but I it worked out, what I had planned."

"What had you planned? I can't leave the room! I can't walk out the door! Like you can't enter a house when you're not invited. What is this? Is this another bloody game to get your rocks off? Drive Buffy 'round the bend? I tell you I love you and you just..."

"What?"

"Why won't you believe me.....Sla- Spike...I mean...."

"Buffy snap out of it! It's the spell, you're......well, mixing us up!"

"I...know. But it's so hard......"

Alright, at least D'Hoffryn's spell had worked and no one had entered, nor had she been able to leave. She should be able to leave if she left with him, but that was a question for later. Right now he had to get loose, and get her back to reality. Somehow.

"Buffy, you have to untie me. And.....uh, why am I naked?"

Suddenly she started to grin. "Oohhh I thought you liked it that way." With that she started to advance on him crawling like a panther. 'Great. Worse mood swings than usual,' he thought.

Then he saw the bottle of chloroform. It was on the ground. Still closed but it made him suddenly wonder: had that made her worse? Had it helped to make her lose her grip on reality altogether? Then another thought hit him. He'd never tested the stuff. And it had come from a demon. What if there was OTHER stuff in there as well? He remembered Buffy dreaming earlier....

His thoughts were interrupted when she reached him. She crawled up on his lap as he sat with his back to the bed. She straddled him, planting her knees on the ground on both sides of his lap, almost face to face except hers was a little higher. She grabbed his head and ran her fingers through his hair.

"Isn't this what you want? Isn't this what I did to you? Isn't this what Dru used to do?"

"Look Buffy, listen. You have to...."

She turned his head up to her with her hand spread out over his left cheek. Then her other hand went back and slapped him hard on his right. The surprise and the pain broke his train of thoughts. She looked at him, still holding his face with her left hand. She didn't look angry or even teasing anymore. More curious. Like she was observing something interesting. She held his face up and slapped him again. And again.

"Aow!!! Buffy, what are you doing!"

"You like that? Isn't that what you want? You like it when women hurt you. The more we hurt you, the more it turns you on. The more you love us. The more you love me. Why is that...?" and she slapped him again, still looking mainly curious.

"Stop it!!" he yelled.

"Why? You don't want me to stop. I feel it so clearly. Your thoughts, your memories. Even me punching you in the nose was something you looked forward to. It hurt when it happened, and you cursed and growled. But my being there and touching you was the highlight of your day. Even when that was all I did."

"Stop it......"

"Dru did it too. She hurt you. Sometimes she was like a little girl that needed a daddy, to take care of her. Sometimes she needed you to be a warrior and a strong lover that swept her off her feet.....But there were other times when she liked the feel of a whip of oiled leather held firmly in her hand, and you, all naked and chained like this, and......"

"STOP IT!!" he snarled. "We don't have TIME for this! I can help you now, but not by sitting here on my nekkid....."

She slapped him again. Hard. And again, and again. Then she gripped his head with both her hands and kissed him just as hard. Her tongue like a whirlwind in his mouth. She broke the kiss but still held him by his head, resting her forehead against his.

"How can you like the hurt? I don't want to feel it anymore. I don't want to see my own face in my head anymore, so cruel and cold and yet still beautiful. I can feel it. I can feel my own fists hitting my face.....how could you just let me do that? I feel the love and concern you had for me, not wanting me to go to the police....I'm....I'm sorry Spike. I didn't know! I just didn't know! I thought I knew......"

Tears rolled down her cheeks now, and he felt her breath on his face, he tried to speak but found he couldn't.

"Inside my head I always told myself you couldn't be that hurt, you have no soul, you couldn't be that upset or broken hearted....and you would always come to me again, always. You just showed up on my birthday like nothing was wrong. Like you didn't mind what I had done, and deep down I felt that.... that confirmed it....and it confirmed none of it could go that deep....but now I feel it and I can't stand it..."

"Buffy....listen. Please. It doesn't matter. None of it does. All that matters is that we cure you. If you remember all this, we can...talk then. Maybe really talk. But now we have to leave...."

He saw her eyes roll in her head a bit and knew he was losing her again. "NO! Listen to me, focus on my voice, stay with me!"

Suddenly she grinned again, all seduction and tease. "Oh, but we've just begun!" She ran her nails over his chest all the way down, not quite breaking the skin. Spike shuddered. "Does widdle Spikey wanna come out and pway?" she purred with a mean laugh as she looked down. "Ooww I think he doeees."

"Buffy, really..," he stammered. "There's nothing I'd like more than to just stay in this room with you like this for the next century or so. And let you do everything you want to me. But not now! Really, really a bad time."

His talking was as much to convince her as it was to distract himself from her hands working down there. It wasn't very successful. He saw her grin as she admired the fruits of her labors. "Ohh, widdle Spikey is always up for a game..."

Then she faltered a bit. He saw her look and understood. She noticed she could sense the blood rush again, and her breath accelerated. Then she saw his head. The dark patch of blood on it. It was dry now but she could still smell it.

Her hands released their grip on him down below and went back to his head again. She grabbed it and bend him forward. She sniffed the dried blood and tried to lick it. He heard her snarl a little when she found it unsatisfactory. Then her eyes went to his neck.

"Buffy! NO! Don't! listen...."

She looked at him for a second, her face impossible to read. Did she even hear him? She was still breathing hard and her mouth hung open a little. And in the weak light he saw it. Fangs.

The rest of her face wasn't changed. Except for a possible glow of yellow in her eyes but it was so faint it could have been his imagination. The only vampire he'd ever seen that was able to keep a human face while having his fangs out was Drac. And he did it with his magic, mainly out of vanity. Buffy was......now something never seen before. Her face was the same as ever, her heart was still beating but she smelled his blood and longed for it. And her fangs were as long and sharp as any vampire's.

She bent forward and sniffed his neck and he knew just what she was feeling. The first time a vampire experiences all this is disorienting and filled with a primal need that won't be denied.

"Buffy..." he tried again, without much hope. He tried to ignore the part of him that wanted this to happen. To vampires this was as intimate and erotic as sex. He used to have fantasies about Buffy as a vampire....before he felt more and more he didn't want her to be one. But some things remain in the back of one's head.

She licked his neck, sensing the blood, trying to pinpoint a vein. Then for a moment she pulled back and looked at him and he wondered if she was more aware than he thought. He felt her legs tense up, pinning the lower half of his body so he couldn't move. Her left hand grabbed his shoulder tight while her right gripped the back of his neck.

Then she bent forward again and opened her mouth. She briefly licked his neck again as if to pick a spot, and she sank her fangs deep into his flesh. His body tensed at the pain and he tried to voice more protests, but she gripped him even tighter and he couldn't move. The only sounds that escaped his lips were a few gurgles.

It took a few bites and a bit of prodding and poking with her teeth before she found the right vein. Then she drank. Greedily with big gulps and slurps. The blood ran down her chin and his chest. Her breath was now as if in ecstasy, and her arm went around his neck as if in a lover's embrace.

Spike shivered torn between pain and pleasure, between alarm and the sense of a dream come true. The part of his brain that was still rational enough to be aware of the situation screamed that as inexperienced and out of control as she was, she could drain him to the point of him being completely incapacitated. He had to stop her. He had to go steal a car and get to the desert....he had to cure her.

Minutes passed as the only sound was that of Buffy's sucking and swallowing, while giving the occasional moan that a dying traveler in the desert makes when he finally drinks the water of an oasis.

Spike felt the strength leave his limbs. He got weaker and weaker but her grip never lessened. Her nails had drawn blood where she held him.

After more time had passed, his head just hung. She stopped for a moment and looked at him. In the cold blue light from outside, her face looked cool and perfect, her lips full and wet, the blood running down her mouth. Her eyes glowed softly and she licked her fangs. She looked magnificent.

"...t'ld you.." he mumbled softly with a smile he almost lacked the energy to form. "...always....hurt..th'one u..lov..."

She caressed his face, bent forward and kissed him. Then she went down to his neck again and licked the wound.

"...I know" she whispered.

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TBC....