Chapter Two: Lust for Life

"I'm so going kill Xander," Willow hisses as she paces between the double doors and the large table in the middle of the library. Her statement echoed the feelings of everybody in the library. Especially every female in the large room. It had been nearly ten minutes since the spell had simply, mysteriously ended.

"No," Jenny says softly, "killing is way to simple." Looking over at Amy she shouts, "and you!" Amy jumps startled at the sudden noise. The young witch hadn't been able to look at anybody since the spell had ended, "what the hell did you think you were doing. Casting a love spell."

"He was blackmailing me. Do the spell or he'd rat me out," she responds softly. Looking up at the group she continues, "I told him, warned him. If his intentions weren't pure there could be consequences." Looking directly at Cordelia she finishes, "but all he wanted was his revenge against you. You couldn't have..."

"Typical Xander," Willow mutters. "The one person he wants is the only one not effected by the spell."

Cordelia looks over at Willow, "for somebody so smart you can be pretty stupid," she snaps at the redhead. "It's fairly obvious I was the only one he didn't want."

"Do you think so?" Willow asks amazed that she hadn't thought of that. Of course with as angry as she was feeling right now she was surprised she was able to think of anything.

"Yeah," Oz answers. "I can see that. Granted I don't Xander as well as you. But…"

"Oh dear lord!" Giles gasps loudly. His face had gone completely white as he stares at nothing for a moment.

"Giles," Willow calls softly as Jenny rushes to his side. The book he had been reading falls to the table as he slumps into his chair. Amy picks up the book quickly flipping towards the spot Giles had been reading.

Jenny kneels down next to Giles rubbing his forearm, "what is it Rupert? What did you find out?"

Giles looks up at Willow catching her eyes with tears brimming at the edges of his own. "I'm… I'm afraid Xander is… Xander is."

Willow shakes her head, "dead." Amy says quietly from the passage she had been reading. "The only way to break a love spell without casting the counter spell is with the death of the person the spell was cast upon."

"I didn't mean I wanted," Willow sobs.

"That can't be right," Cordelia coldly remarks staring at Amy.

Willow crumples to the floor in a quivering heap. Oz is at her side in an instant gathering her into his arms. The only recognizable word coming from Willow is "no," repeated over and over again.

"You read it wrong," Cordelia cries out grabbing hold of Amy. The taller girl easily hauls the small witch out of her chair, "Xander can't be dead. Do you understand me!" She yells shaking the smaller girl, "read it again, read it right this time."

"Cordelia!" Jenny shouts at the cheerleader.

Cordelia glances at Jenny as she stops shaking Amy. "He can't be," she mouths as she lets go of the witch. "He just can't," she adds as she grabs back hold of Amy. Pulling Amy into A tight hug she squeezes the smaller girl as hard as she can as she fights to hold in the tears that she can feel threatening her.

"You turned the slayer," Spike chuckles as Angelus dumps Buffy on the large table. Spike runs an appreciative gaze over her nude body. "I can't believe you turned the bloody slayer," he laughs hard as he slaps the table several times. "The bloody fucking slayer."

Angelus gives Spike a slight shrug as he smiles darkly, "what can I say. I was planning on tormenting her for a few more weeks, force her to slay some of her friends. Really break her, but I just had this urge to kill her tonight. So I took a page out of your book and did."

Spike glances up at the older vampire, "it's not like you to jump ship in mid stream mate?"

Hopping up onto the table Angelus looks down at Spike, "sometime you just have to go with a little spontaneity. You know, when that moment just kinds of grabs ya'," he explains carefully. "Seeing her about to give it up to that poser Harris. It just made want her dead," he shrugs. "So I killed her."

"Ah, daddy brought princess home a new sister," Drusilla sighs gleefully. "Wicked beast hidden within," she continues tilting Buffy's head to the side exposing the wound. She leans down licking the dried blood off Buffy's neck, "she's like roses. Beautiful white roses that have all up and died." She says with a slight whimper in her voice. She leans down as slowly licks up the side of Spike's face, then she glides over to Angelus. Growling playfully she nips at his chin. "The stars they tell me, tell me about my little sister. My precious white roses. She's going to keep our family together forever."

Spike rolls his way around the table to stop by Xander's body. "Um, Dru. Pet, I thought we agreed not to bring the takeout home anymore?"

Drusilla turns away from Angelus screwing her first finger into the side of her temple. "The voices. They filled up my head with visions," she says gliding across the concrete floor. She easily lifts Xander up by his throat, "told me I needed to have my dark knight with me for all."

"You turned that," Angelus sneers, "I must've done a better job then I thought. You're a psychotic loon."

"Maybe you shoulda stuck with your first plan," Spike smirks amusedly while he rolls himself away.

"Then he changed and the voices went away," she grins at Angelus. "He's beautiful he is. Got a heart as black as death itself and a fire burning in the pit of his belly. He's the perfect brother Roses and Spike."

Angelus smiles, "is that right Dru?"

"He'll bath the world in blood and fire 'fore he's done," Drusilla replies as if it's a certain fact.

Angelus wraps his arm around her waist as he pulls her out of the room, "we'll see Dru. If'n he ain't everything you claim. Well he'll get to see one last sunrise."

Buffy groans softly as she sucks in a deep lungfull of air. She clutches her stomach at the intense hunger pain that grips her. Rolling to her side on the hard surface she was sleeping on she groans even louder then the first time.

"Well now," Spike mutters from a few feet away.

"Spike?" Buffy moans opening her eyes. There he was sitting in his old fashion wheel chair. His chin was resting lightly atop his stapled fingers. It was unnerving her, how he was just sitting there staring at her with that intense gaze of his, the likes of which she had never seen before. He had never looked so alive, so vibrant to her eyes before.

"There's something, a few things actually that you just don't see everyday," Spike states sounding almost impressed.

"Why aren't you trying to kill me?" Buffy asks after a moment before she realizes she had no desire to kill him either. Well she did have a desire to kill him, but that was more because he was an annoying prick not because he was a vampire.

Spike chuckles loudly at the question, "good to know you've kept your sense of humor pet."

Buffy groans again as she swings her bare legs over the side of the table. Looking down at herself she notices her lack of clothing for the first time. She only finds it slightly disconcerting that she's not more embarrassed by the fact she is sitting naked on a table in front of Spike and not feeling ashamed over it.

"Feeling a bit peckish are we darling?" He asks leering at her perfect teenage body.

Buffy can feel herself actually preening because of the way Spike is looking at her. She shakes her head emitting a low growl from deep in her chest. Looking down at herself she stops growling. "Bit disconcerting from this side isn't it luv?"

"I'm dead ain't I?" She asks him even though she knows the answer already.

"Undead American would be the proper term your looking for," he responds with a smirk at her disbelieving look.

"Angel turned me, and he didn't have the decency to dress me," she complains snottily.

"Vampire luv," Spike reminds her. "I know your memory's never been your greatest asset but try to keep that in the forefront. It's rather important to your unlife now."

Buffy glances at Spike carefully, "I'll be sure to remember that. Thanks."

"You're planning on going out?"

"I'm hungry," she tells him with a faraway gleam in her eyes. "I'm in the mood for something young, fresh."

Spike smirks, "most newbies aren't all that concerned with what their meal tastes like. Most can't control the change until after their first meal either," he informs her.

She knows he's talking about changing from her human to vampire face, "how long?"

He grins again, "just short of three hours. Give or take a couple minutes," he tells her simply.

She blinks at him, "that's not right. It's suppose take a day, sometimes three."

"I was here when Angelus dropped you off Luv."

Buffy smiles, "so nobody knows I'm dead yet?"

"Your mom."

She shrugs, "not like she was a big part of my. Not like she's gonna be a big part of it after I kill her."

"Angelus brought you a bag of clothes. It's at the end of the table," he tells her watching her carefully. There was something in her voice that sounding slightly hesitant when she mentioned killing her mother.

Buffy smiles gratefully at Spike. While she no longer had a problem displaying her body this way. Walking all the way to her house would probably be problematic with having to kill all the people who saw her like this. "Thanks," she answers sliding off the table.

Strutting to the end of the she stops suddenly. Sucking in another deep unneeded breath upon seeing the partially clad form of Alexander Harris. "Angel turned him too?" She asks Spike sensing the changes taking place within the Xander's corpse.

"Dru," Spike growls angrily.

Buffy laughs at that, "serves you right you stupid bastard."

"What's so bleeding funny?"

Looking back over her shoulder she explains herself, "he had a love spell cast on himself."

Spike glances at the dead body with a look of utter disbelieve, "why would he want Dru?"

"I don't think he did since it effected me as well. It's the only reason Angel got the drop on me," she says kicking Xander in the ribs smiling as she feels the satisfying crunch of bones breaking with the impact. "Oh well, looks like I get to move onto meal number two."

Shaking her head she dumps the contents of her bag onto the table. Her eyes go wide as she gets her first look at what Angel had pack, "well this sucks," she snarls as she picks up the single pair of black boots. "He only brought me one pair of boots," she mutters tossing them back onto the table. "And the rest of this," she gripes rummaging through the pile, "nothing here goes together. I'm gonna look like a mall fashion reject trying to make an outfit out of this crap."

Spike laughs at Buffy's tirade, "come on now pet. There's gotta be something you could throw together."

"Please," she groans. "Look at this. It's like he was trying to dress a vampire. Dark, dark, and oh hey just for variety. More dark."

"I'm getting the impression you don't like dark?"

"Don't get me wrong," Buffy explains. "Darks got it's place. On you it goes. Me, not so much. First thing I gotta do is hit myself up a mall, get a whole new wardrobe."

Spike smirks shaking his head, "and just how are you planning on transporting this here new wardrobe of yours?"

Buffy smiles sweetly at Spike, "you could come with. Make a night of it. Find ourselves some nice nubile young thing."

"In case you haven't noticed pet I'm not the most mobile," Spike spits out angrily.

"Oh please, your Spike. The big bad. The only vamp I've never been able to kill no matter how many time we've fought." She tells him just before she plops herself down on his lap. "Besides how are you gonna build your strength back up if your not getting fresh food. I mean what have Angel and Dru been bringing you. Stray pets or something?"

Spike looks away from her, "oh my god! That's what they've been doing to you. How the hell are you suppose to get strong eating that crap?" She grates angrily hopping off his lap, "you are going with me tonight." She tells him in a voice that isn't going to brook no arguments from him. In a flash she throwing on some of the dark clothing, "no more of this moping around feeling sorry for yourself."

Spike shakes his head as he sighs. He didn't think Angelus knew what he had gotten himself in for with turning the slayer. She hadn't even fed yet and she was already a force to be reckoned with. "What about him?" He asks pointing at Harris.

Buffy looks down at Xander, "we should probably take him with us. Really wouldn't want some stray Scooby stumbling upon him and deciding to stake your new brother." She replies as she looks at Spike, "this like makes me your aunt doesn't it?" She asks with a too sweet smile, "kinda of means you have to do what I say."

"Bloody hell," Spike groans slapping a hand over his head.

________________________________________________________________________

Lust for Life - Iggy Pop

Here comes Johnny Yen again
With the liquor and drugs
And the flesh machine
He's gonna do another strip tease.
Hey man, where'd ya get that lotion?
I've been hurting since I've bought the gimmick
about something called love
Yeah, something called love.
Well, that's like hypnotizing chickens.

Well, I'm just a modern guy
Of course, I've had it in the ear before.
I have a lust for life
'Cause of a lust for life.

I'm worth a million in prizes
With my torture film
Drive a GTO
Wear a uniform
all on a government loan.
I'm worth a million in prizes
Yeah, I'm through with sleeping on the sidewalk
No more beating my brains
No more beating my brains
With liquor and drugs
With liquor and drugs.

Well, I'm just a modern guy
Of course, I've had it in my ear before
Well, I've a lust for life (lust for life)
'Cause of a lust for life (lust for life, oooo)
I got a lust for life (oooo)
Got a lust for life (oooo)
Oh, a lust for life (oooo)
Oh, a lust for life (oooo)
A lust for life (oooo)
I got a lust for life (oooo)
Got a lust for life.

Well, I'm just a modern guy
Of course, I've had it in my ear before
Well, I've a lust for life
'Cause I've a lust for life.

Here comes Johnny Yen again
With the liquor and drugs
And the flesh machine
He's gonna do another strip tease.
Hey man, where'd ya get that lotion?
Your skin starts itching once you buy the gimmick
about something called love
Love, love, love
Well, that's like hypnotizing chickens.

Well, I'm just a modern guy
Of course, I've had it in the ear before
And I've a lust for life (lust for life)
'Cause I've a lust for life (lust for life)
Got a lust for life
Yeah, a lust for life
I got a lust for life
A lust for life
Got a lust for life
Yeah a lust for life
I got a lust for life
Lust for life
Lust for life
Lust for life
Lust for life
Lust for life