Daydreams and Demons
A Buffy the Vampire Slayer story by Merrie
Disclaimer: If they were mine, you think I would have seen my name in the credits, wouldn't you? Alas, I looked and they weren't there. Sigh..
Summary: Spike is poisoned by a demon out for revenge. Can he convince Buffy to help him before it's too late?
Characters: Spike, Buffy, Willow, Xander, Dawn and Maximillian Dominus a little OFC I have created.
Author's Note: Sorry this took so long to post. I hope it'll be worth the wait!!
Rating: This story is rated PG-13 for violence and language.
Chapter Eight
"Oh! Um, Max you're early. At least, I think you're early. We've been kinda busy so I haven't had a chance to look at a clock lately so you could be right on time. Or you could be late and if you are that's ok we don't mind. Although." Willow seemed to realize that she had begun rambling and paused to re-center herself. She hadn't rambled quite like that in a long time and a part of her wondered at the effects Max seemed to be having on her state of mind.
"Actually, I thought I was right on time. It doesn't look that way now though. I'm sorry if I interrupted something important. Should I take this as a sign that dinner's canceled then?" Max asked, putting on a charming smile. He was putting on the performance of his life. Inside he was fuming and wanted nothing more than to reach across the room and rip the blonde vampire's head from its shoulders.
Willow smiled at him and then glanced nervously to where Buffy still kneeled at Spike's side. 'What do we do?' she mouthed at her friend. Buffy looked at Spike, who had retreated in on himself again despite her pleading, and then to Max who stood patiently at her front door, waiting for her to say something. She turned to him.
"I'm sorry for this, but dinner might have to be cancelled. Our friend Spike here just got into town and.and he doesn't have a place to stay so I thought."
Max let Buffy ramble on, trying to figure out how to deal with his current situation. Deciding to throw it all to the fates, he took a good long look at Spike again and noticed that his vampiric visage was in place. He had to hold down a smirk. 'This is going to be interesting.' "Buffy! He's not your friend! Look at his face! Get away from him right now!" He yelled in a frantic voice, rushing over to her and pushing her away from Spike as quickly as he could.
Spike started at the sudden shouting and Buffy looked at Max curiously. 'What the heck is he talking about? Look at his.' Buffy looked over at Spike and her eyes set on his fangs and wrinkled skin. 'Oh..oh crap. Max has seen him.how do I explain this? Wait a sec, he told me to get away from him.does that mean?' Deciding that her inner monologue had been going on a bit too long, she turned to Max. "It's ok, Max. Look, you seem to know what Spike is, and I'm telling you not to worry. I know what he is as well, and we have nothing to fear from him. He won't hurt us."
"What do you mean he won't hurt us? He's a vampire, Buffy! I'm glad you know what he is and what he can do, but you can't trust him! All his kind does is kill! We've got to kill him!" He moved toward Spike again, taking a sharp wooden stake from a pocket Buffy hadn't noticed earlier. At the sight of the stake firmly grasped in his hand however, her eyes widened and she moved to intercept him.
"No! He's not a threat! There will be no staking of Spike! Besides, vampire dust is hell to get out of the carpet." Before Max could even think of a response to that, the room was filled with a harsh coughing sound. Buffy gasped as she located the source. Spike, leaning hard against the cushions of her couch in obvious pain, seemed to be coughing up blood. A thick red line trailed out of a corner of his mouth. "Oh God." Buffy said, forgetting Max and the threat he represented, her entire being focussed on Spike. "Spike? Tell us what's wrong. Tell me what's wrong. Please? We need to know so we can help you." Any response Spike might have given was lost as his still golden eyes rolled up in the back of his head and he passed out. "Guys, quick give me a bag of blood and a pair of scissors!" Buffy shouted, causing everyone in the room to jump. Xander placed one of the stolen blood bags in her hand and Dawn came running with a pair of scissors from the kitchen. The maternal part of Buffy wanted to scold her sister for doing such a reckless thing as running with scissors, but the rest of her screamed its worry for Spike. She hurriedly cut a small hole in the blood bag and held it to Spike's slightly parted lips. Squeezing the bag to force the blood out, she poured the liquid into Spike's mouth and begged him to swallow it. Blood was running down his still chin and splashing onto her shirt, but she didn't care.
After a few inexorably long moments, Spike's throat finally started to move to swallow the rich liquid filling his mouth. Gasps of relief filled the room. Even Xander looked relieved that Spike was back among the unliving. The relief was short lived when Spike opened his still yellowed eyes and focussed on Buffy's. One emotion shouted at her from their depths: pain. Pain at what he was going through, pain at what he had done to her, pain for every man woman and child he had ever laid his filthy hands on. In that moment, Buffy saw his soul and she nearly wept at the sight of it. "Oh Spike, why didn't you tell us? When did it happen? We would have helped you."
"I don't deserve your help." Spike rasped through his bloodied lips. "I don't deserve to be here. The only thing a monster like me deserves is pain, suffering and death."
"What do you mean, Buff? When did he get what? What is she talking about, Spike?" Xander asked, thankful that it seemed like he was finally getting some answers as to Evil Undead's condition.
"The spark.the light.they put it in me. To make me burn. To burn for you, only you Buffy. I burn for you." Spike mumbled.
"His soul. I think he got his soul back." Buffy clarified slowly.
"His what?!" Xander took a minute to process this new information and noticed the other people in the room seemed to be doing the same. Even Max. "His soul. Spike got his soul back. Spike has a soul." Xander repeated, trying to wrap his brain around the foreign concept. "Oh man, no wonder he's more messed up than usual. Is that what's making him sick? I don't think Angel." He let out a little gasp at the low growl from Spike at the mention of his grandsire's name. "I don't think that.that other vampire we know ever got sick when he got his. Did he, Spike?" Xander asked, looking over at the only person in the room who would have had first hand knowledge of the changes between Angel and Angelus.
"I-I don't know..I don't think so." Spike rasped in answer to Xander's question. Buffy was relieved that he seemed to be coherent at least, but she was afraid it wouldn't last.
"Ok, can someone tell me what the hell is going on here?! I mean, I know I just met you and all, but this is a little too much to handle. Come on, vampires with souls? You've got to know he's lying to you. And why are you helping him anyway? I thought you said you knew about vampires? If that's true, why aren't you killing him right now?" Max directed his questions toward Buffy, but quickly glanced at the other people in the room to pose his questions to them as well.
Buffy finally rose from her place at Spike's side and cast a hard glance in Max's direction. "I know more about vampires than you could possibly imagine. I know their weaknesses, their strength, their hates, their desires.and their loves. I know Spike here. I know that he has tried and succeeded to hurt me in the past, I know that once upon a time he would have given everything to see me dead at his hands. I know he has killed two Slayers before me." At Max's wide-eyed glance, she nodded. "That's right, I'm a Slayer. Not the only one, but the original. Now that you know what I am and what I do, know this: I trust Spike and he needs our help. We're going to give it to him. And nothing is going to stop us from doing so. Got it?" Before Max could answer, Spike grabbed his head violently and let out a roar so primal and pain-filled that made the people in the room quiver with the remembered fear of their ancestors at what Spike was. At the vampire that he was. It also made every dog with in a five block radius start barking its head off.
"Ho-ly Spdoinkle. What the hell was that?" Xander asked breathily.
"It was Spike, wasn't it? Wow, I don't think I've ever been that scared of him before. And all he did was roar." Willow trailed off nervously.
"That was a hell of a lot more than a roar. I think that was a cry for help." Buffy said, her Slayer senses coming to attention.
Seeing her sister tense up, Dawn's face filled with fear. "What do you mean, Buffy? What's wrong?"
"I think whatever Spike, or his demon rather, just did sent a call to every vampire in the area. Listen? Weren't a whole bunch of dogs barking just now?"
"Yeah, it was kinda annoying actually. Thank goodness it stopped." Dawn's eyes widened as she got what her sister was getting at. "What.what happened to the dogs? I don't hear anything."
"Exactly. Not a sound. The night has gone dead. I can't hear anything outside, and believe me, I'm trying." Buffy turned to Spike, who sat rocking back and forth on the couch. "What did you do?"
"Didn't.I didn't mean to.sure to be caned now. Stand in the corner, William. You've been bad.didn't mean to..didn't mean to."
"Didn't mean to what? What did you do? Talk to me, Spike. I need to know what I'm facing." Buffy near shouted at him in exasperation. "Was I right? Did you send out a call to other vampires?"
"Yes..other monsters..like me. Bad William, bad Spike, bad William, bad Spike." Spike alternated between berating his former and current selves, scratching at the sides of his face with his fingernails. Willow and Dawn moved at the same time to grab one of Spike's hands each to prevent him from doing any further damage to his face. He started to fight them, but after a moment his arms went slack at his sides and Dawn and Willow let go. When it didn't look like Spike was going to try and hurt himself any further, they left him alone on the couch and went over to help Buffy as she searched inside her weapons chest for stakes and holy water.
"I've got a bad feeling that we're about to be invaded. Thankfully, Spike is the only vampire in town with an invite to the house, so they can't get it. That won't stop them from trying though."
"And they can always burn the house down if they can't get you to come out." Max added quietly. Buffy looked at him from top to bottom, assessing his fighting condition. After a moment's hesitation, she handed him back the stake she had taken from him after his attempt to kill Spike.
"You said you've faced vampires before, well now here's your chance to do so again. Don't get yourself killed."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Max responded wryly. Buffy just sent him a very Spike-like smirk and went back to grabbing weapons for the others.
"Willow, you and Dawn stay back with Spike. In his current condition he's dead weight, no pun intended. Xander, Max, you too are my backups. We'll deal with whatever Spike called together, ok?" She turned to see the two men nod. She quickly turned back to the sound of the front picture window breaking as a large brick was thrown through it. "Hey! My window! Oh, someone is so gonna get staked for that. Here they come."
TBC
A/N: Sorry this took so long to post. The next chapter will be up much sooner, I promise. Thanks for reading!!! Please post your reviews and tell me what you think!! Also, thanks to Martha for your quick beta!
A Buffy the Vampire Slayer story by Merrie
Disclaimer: If they were mine, you think I would have seen my name in the credits, wouldn't you? Alas, I looked and they weren't there. Sigh..
Summary: Spike is poisoned by a demon out for revenge. Can he convince Buffy to help him before it's too late?
Characters: Spike, Buffy, Willow, Xander, Dawn and Maximillian Dominus a little OFC I have created.
Author's Note: Sorry this took so long to post. I hope it'll be worth the wait!!
Rating: This story is rated PG-13 for violence and language.
Chapter Eight
"Oh! Um, Max you're early. At least, I think you're early. We've been kinda busy so I haven't had a chance to look at a clock lately so you could be right on time. Or you could be late and if you are that's ok we don't mind. Although." Willow seemed to realize that she had begun rambling and paused to re-center herself. She hadn't rambled quite like that in a long time and a part of her wondered at the effects Max seemed to be having on her state of mind.
"Actually, I thought I was right on time. It doesn't look that way now though. I'm sorry if I interrupted something important. Should I take this as a sign that dinner's canceled then?" Max asked, putting on a charming smile. He was putting on the performance of his life. Inside he was fuming and wanted nothing more than to reach across the room and rip the blonde vampire's head from its shoulders.
Willow smiled at him and then glanced nervously to where Buffy still kneeled at Spike's side. 'What do we do?' she mouthed at her friend. Buffy looked at Spike, who had retreated in on himself again despite her pleading, and then to Max who stood patiently at her front door, waiting for her to say something. She turned to him.
"I'm sorry for this, but dinner might have to be cancelled. Our friend Spike here just got into town and.and he doesn't have a place to stay so I thought."
Max let Buffy ramble on, trying to figure out how to deal with his current situation. Deciding to throw it all to the fates, he took a good long look at Spike again and noticed that his vampiric visage was in place. He had to hold down a smirk. 'This is going to be interesting.' "Buffy! He's not your friend! Look at his face! Get away from him right now!" He yelled in a frantic voice, rushing over to her and pushing her away from Spike as quickly as he could.
Spike started at the sudden shouting and Buffy looked at Max curiously. 'What the heck is he talking about? Look at his.' Buffy looked over at Spike and her eyes set on his fangs and wrinkled skin. 'Oh..oh crap. Max has seen him.how do I explain this? Wait a sec, he told me to get away from him.does that mean?' Deciding that her inner monologue had been going on a bit too long, she turned to Max. "It's ok, Max. Look, you seem to know what Spike is, and I'm telling you not to worry. I know what he is as well, and we have nothing to fear from him. He won't hurt us."
"What do you mean he won't hurt us? He's a vampire, Buffy! I'm glad you know what he is and what he can do, but you can't trust him! All his kind does is kill! We've got to kill him!" He moved toward Spike again, taking a sharp wooden stake from a pocket Buffy hadn't noticed earlier. At the sight of the stake firmly grasped in his hand however, her eyes widened and she moved to intercept him.
"No! He's not a threat! There will be no staking of Spike! Besides, vampire dust is hell to get out of the carpet." Before Max could even think of a response to that, the room was filled with a harsh coughing sound. Buffy gasped as she located the source. Spike, leaning hard against the cushions of her couch in obvious pain, seemed to be coughing up blood. A thick red line trailed out of a corner of his mouth. "Oh God." Buffy said, forgetting Max and the threat he represented, her entire being focussed on Spike. "Spike? Tell us what's wrong. Tell me what's wrong. Please? We need to know so we can help you." Any response Spike might have given was lost as his still golden eyes rolled up in the back of his head and he passed out. "Guys, quick give me a bag of blood and a pair of scissors!" Buffy shouted, causing everyone in the room to jump. Xander placed one of the stolen blood bags in her hand and Dawn came running with a pair of scissors from the kitchen. The maternal part of Buffy wanted to scold her sister for doing such a reckless thing as running with scissors, but the rest of her screamed its worry for Spike. She hurriedly cut a small hole in the blood bag and held it to Spike's slightly parted lips. Squeezing the bag to force the blood out, she poured the liquid into Spike's mouth and begged him to swallow it. Blood was running down his still chin and splashing onto her shirt, but she didn't care.
After a few inexorably long moments, Spike's throat finally started to move to swallow the rich liquid filling his mouth. Gasps of relief filled the room. Even Xander looked relieved that Spike was back among the unliving. The relief was short lived when Spike opened his still yellowed eyes and focussed on Buffy's. One emotion shouted at her from their depths: pain. Pain at what he was going through, pain at what he had done to her, pain for every man woman and child he had ever laid his filthy hands on. In that moment, Buffy saw his soul and she nearly wept at the sight of it. "Oh Spike, why didn't you tell us? When did it happen? We would have helped you."
"I don't deserve your help." Spike rasped through his bloodied lips. "I don't deserve to be here. The only thing a monster like me deserves is pain, suffering and death."
"What do you mean, Buff? When did he get what? What is she talking about, Spike?" Xander asked, thankful that it seemed like he was finally getting some answers as to Evil Undead's condition.
"The spark.the light.they put it in me. To make me burn. To burn for you, only you Buffy. I burn for you." Spike mumbled.
"His soul. I think he got his soul back." Buffy clarified slowly.
"His what?!" Xander took a minute to process this new information and noticed the other people in the room seemed to be doing the same. Even Max. "His soul. Spike got his soul back. Spike has a soul." Xander repeated, trying to wrap his brain around the foreign concept. "Oh man, no wonder he's more messed up than usual. Is that what's making him sick? I don't think Angel." He let out a little gasp at the low growl from Spike at the mention of his grandsire's name. "I don't think that.that other vampire we know ever got sick when he got his. Did he, Spike?" Xander asked, looking over at the only person in the room who would have had first hand knowledge of the changes between Angel and Angelus.
"I-I don't know..I don't think so." Spike rasped in answer to Xander's question. Buffy was relieved that he seemed to be coherent at least, but she was afraid it wouldn't last.
"Ok, can someone tell me what the hell is going on here?! I mean, I know I just met you and all, but this is a little too much to handle. Come on, vampires with souls? You've got to know he's lying to you. And why are you helping him anyway? I thought you said you knew about vampires? If that's true, why aren't you killing him right now?" Max directed his questions toward Buffy, but quickly glanced at the other people in the room to pose his questions to them as well.
Buffy finally rose from her place at Spike's side and cast a hard glance in Max's direction. "I know more about vampires than you could possibly imagine. I know their weaknesses, their strength, their hates, their desires.and their loves. I know Spike here. I know that he has tried and succeeded to hurt me in the past, I know that once upon a time he would have given everything to see me dead at his hands. I know he has killed two Slayers before me." At Max's wide-eyed glance, she nodded. "That's right, I'm a Slayer. Not the only one, but the original. Now that you know what I am and what I do, know this: I trust Spike and he needs our help. We're going to give it to him. And nothing is going to stop us from doing so. Got it?" Before Max could answer, Spike grabbed his head violently and let out a roar so primal and pain-filled that made the people in the room quiver with the remembered fear of their ancestors at what Spike was. At the vampire that he was. It also made every dog with in a five block radius start barking its head off.
"Ho-ly Spdoinkle. What the hell was that?" Xander asked breathily.
"It was Spike, wasn't it? Wow, I don't think I've ever been that scared of him before. And all he did was roar." Willow trailed off nervously.
"That was a hell of a lot more than a roar. I think that was a cry for help." Buffy said, her Slayer senses coming to attention.
Seeing her sister tense up, Dawn's face filled with fear. "What do you mean, Buffy? What's wrong?"
"I think whatever Spike, or his demon rather, just did sent a call to every vampire in the area. Listen? Weren't a whole bunch of dogs barking just now?"
"Yeah, it was kinda annoying actually. Thank goodness it stopped." Dawn's eyes widened as she got what her sister was getting at. "What.what happened to the dogs? I don't hear anything."
"Exactly. Not a sound. The night has gone dead. I can't hear anything outside, and believe me, I'm trying." Buffy turned to Spike, who sat rocking back and forth on the couch. "What did you do?"
"Didn't.I didn't mean to.sure to be caned now. Stand in the corner, William. You've been bad.didn't mean to..didn't mean to."
"Didn't mean to what? What did you do? Talk to me, Spike. I need to know what I'm facing." Buffy near shouted at him in exasperation. "Was I right? Did you send out a call to other vampires?"
"Yes..other monsters..like me. Bad William, bad Spike, bad William, bad Spike." Spike alternated between berating his former and current selves, scratching at the sides of his face with his fingernails. Willow and Dawn moved at the same time to grab one of Spike's hands each to prevent him from doing any further damage to his face. He started to fight them, but after a moment his arms went slack at his sides and Dawn and Willow let go. When it didn't look like Spike was going to try and hurt himself any further, they left him alone on the couch and went over to help Buffy as she searched inside her weapons chest for stakes and holy water.
"I've got a bad feeling that we're about to be invaded. Thankfully, Spike is the only vampire in town with an invite to the house, so they can't get it. That won't stop them from trying though."
"And they can always burn the house down if they can't get you to come out." Max added quietly. Buffy looked at him from top to bottom, assessing his fighting condition. After a moment's hesitation, she handed him back the stake she had taken from him after his attempt to kill Spike.
"You said you've faced vampires before, well now here's your chance to do so again. Don't get yourself killed."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Max responded wryly. Buffy just sent him a very Spike-like smirk and went back to grabbing weapons for the others.
"Willow, you and Dawn stay back with Spike. In his current condition he's dead weight, no pun intended. Xander, Max, you too are my backups. We'll deal with whatever Spike called together, ok?" She turned to see the two men nod. She quickly turned back to the sound of the front picture window breaking as a large brick was thrown through it. "Hey! My window! Oh, someone is so gonna get staked for that. Here they come."
TBC
A/N: Sorry this took so long to post. The next chapter will be up much sooner, I promise. Thanks for reading!!! Please post your reviews and tell me what you think!! Also, thanks to Martha for your quick beta!