Title: Blood Loss
Author: KeepTheFaith (Laura)
Feedback: May be provided here or sent to aeryncrichton@hotmail.com
Disclaimer: Buffy is owned by Joss Whedon and ME, I'm just borrowing them
Spoilers: Set during season 4, after "Fear Itself"
Pairings: Buffy / Spike
Rating: R
Subject: More dancing between Buffy and Spike as they try to deal with the consequences of their attraction, Sequel to Here and Now
Blood Loss
Chapter 2 - Mating Dance
"How do you know that Spike?" Buffy asked. She stood stiffly, legs spread at shoulder width, and hands fisted on her hips. "How do you know you can be good?"
"Have been so far. Wasn't that tough when I thought about who would be waiting for me in my crypt, or out in the cemetery, waiting to waylay me... about every night this past week." Spike coupled a lascivious grin with a cheeky wink.
"But you could go back to killing anytime," Buffy said.
Spike nodded.
"And you'd still enjoy it." Buffy paced Spike's crypt.
She looked around at the crypt Spike called home. In the short time since he'd come back to town, he'd managed to scrounge up a TV, portable stereo and even a cooler, although heaven or perhaps hell only knew what he kept in there. The potential grossed her out enough that she was afraid to ask; no way would she look. She wasn't sure whether her hesitation stemmed from what she thought she would or wouldn't find stashed inside.
Her eyes were drawn back to Spike, as though his sapphire gaze possessed an intrinsic magnetic force, attuned to reel her in, like iron filings to a magnet.
"Spike, where can this lead, except into utter disaster?" Buffy asked, shaking her head wearily. She didn't want to end whatever it was that they'd been building between them, but being with Spike while he was still feeding on humans, even if he wasn't actually killing, was still wrong. Wasn't it? He insisted he wasn't killing, but wasn't feeding off his victims almost as bad? It could lead right back to the killing.
That would be bad. Very, very bad. Achy breaky, heartbreaky bad.
A Spike up to his old tricks after he'd ensorcelled her and made her fall would be full of badness. Who was to say that Spike wasn't up to his old tricks -- except Spike. If he was lying, it could lead to much Buffy unhappiness.
"The two of us together is how it bloody well should be Buffy. There's no one who's a better match for me than you." Spike looked at her with sincerity shining out of his ice blue gaze.
Buffy shook her head. "I can't... I won't let this go any further. It's already gone too far."
"It hasn't gone bloody well far enough, far as I'm concerned," Spike retorted.
Buffy raised a brow at Spike's outburst, but she was at a dead loss figuring out what he meant. Their situation had already gone so far beyond her every reasonable definition of wrong. So taking it further -- deepening it -- could only make it worse, although she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to succeed in convincing him of that.
If she did, no more Spike and Buffy smoochies and no more Spiky fun. Likely it'd be back to the Buffy and Spike fighting, which was not a pretty picture. Because she wasn't sure she could get with the Buffy fighting Spike program again. He might just wind up having his one good day, since she'd be having a series of bad ones.
"How much further can we take this?" Buffy asked, curiosity overcoming her fear of getting in deeper. It was just a question, no need to follow up on the answer, especially if she didn't like it.
"All the way pet. To the end," Spike replied.
Okay, that answer demanded explanation -- being as rife with innuendo as it was with possible misunderstanding.
"What end?" Buffy asked, hardly daring to breathe as she waited for his answer.
"Us, together. For good. Mated for life," Spike answered.
Buffy shook her head. Then she turned her frowny face back upon him. "What? We've had sex... or mated, if that's what you want to call it, already."
"We've shagged, yeah, but we haven't truly mated. Not the way a vampire does when he or she takes a mate. For life..." Spike trailed off, his voice calm and measured. He added, "With a vampire claim."
"Ah, hate to point out the obvious, but human here. Only one vampire in the equation," Buffy said, with a bit of a huff, for emphasis.
"Vampire claims can work between a vampire and a human."
"I hesitate to ask, but how exactly do you know that? I thought that Dru was your one and only love."
"Not from personal experience pet. I read it. In some of your Watcher's books." There was a hint of smugness in his cocky grin, most likely because he found out something from Gile's books, before her Watcher had the chance to look it up himself. "'Sides, Dru and I never had a claim between us."
"Why were you looking for information about claims between vampires and humans?" Buffy asked.
Spike looked down at his black painted nails, examining them to make sure his manicure was impeccable, diverting his gaze from a pair of piercing emerald eyes.
Buffy wasn't about to let him put something past her. She wanted to know exactly what he'd found out, what he was planning, and if it would work.
"Perhaps you'd care to explain yourself Spike?" She seethed with menace, waiting for his answer. If this plan of Spike's had been percolating in his brain since she'd seen him last year, when he'd been all moony over his lost love Drucilla... "How long have you been planning this?"
Spike looked up.
Buffy almost let herself get caught up in his electric blue gaze. Then she gripped his upper arms with full Slayer strength, about ready to hurl him on his ass if she didn't like his answer.
"It came to me a few days ago," Spike said. "So I thought I'd read through a few of the Watcher's journals. To see if I could find reference to any of the early Slayers and their vampire lovers."
She followed his gaze to the coffee table, where three leather bound volumes lay. Two of the volumes had spines cracked with age, yellowed pages almost falling out of their bindings. The third was much newer.
"What did you find?" Buffy asked, curiosity overcoming her earlier suspicion and anger. Giles didn't talk much about what the Slayers had been like before the Watcher's Council and the Watchers themselves. Maybe there was a reason he didn't. Something none of the Watchers wanted any Slayer to know. Giles had never mentioned a previous Slayer having a vampire lover, even when she was with Angel. The possibility of a Slayer taking a vampire lover had definitely never come up in a single conversation.
"There were at least two Slayers who had vampire lovers. They lived and died long before The Watcher's Council was established," Spike said.
"The first one mentioned, was named Ramona Trace. She was the Slayer in Rome from 305-280 B.C. She apparently had a vampire lover for the last 22 of those years. I found sketchy accounts of her life in the journals of Watcher William Hart. He was a Watcher in the 1480s. He was also something of an amateur archeologist. It seems he found the journals of the Slayer herself in which she describes her lover as one of the enemy, until he claimed her, after which he fought at her side until her death. The last entry noting the date and manner of the Slayer's death appeared to have been made in another hand. Mr. Hart thought her vampire might have made it, since there was no signature.
"The second Slayer with a vampire lover was Jacaranda. No last name noted in the records. She was an African princess of the Serengeti before she was called. She was the Slayer from 532-553 A.D. Her vampire lover fought at her side for over 18 years. It was his writings that were found by a Watcher by the name of Franklin Carruthers in 1892.
"The third Slayer with a vampire lover is named Buffy Summers. The case is out on how long her rein as the Slayer will last. It started in 1995 when she was called at the age of 15. I'd like to be the vampire at her side for as long as she lives. Fighting to protect her for as long as she'll allow, keeping the forces of darkness at bay. What do you say Buffy?"
To be continued...