Disclaimer: Don´t own Buffy or Spike, it´s all Joss Whedon´s genius!!!!
NOTES: OK …ifirst I´m really sorry it took me so very long! I just can´t get anything done and I apologize!
Thanks to all of you for your very kind reviews! It really makes me sit down and write more!!
Special thanks to organized chaos and Keep the Faith! You two really rock and it makes me very, very proud that you like my stuff! THANK YOU!!!!
I know I promised to introduce Iolanthe in this chapter, but it seemed wrong to do so after the last sentence! I will hurry up with the next chapter and there she´ll be! I just needed to get some thoughts and notions in in this little ditty…… Hope you still enjoy!!
ECHO
„ And where the bloody hell might you be coming from?"
Siobhan looked up to find Spike leaning against the door of his room, half shrouded in the darkness. They had not bothered to switch on the lights in the long corridor.
They didn´t need light to see.
The banshee shifted her head sideways to look around. They were alone.
" I ….nothing really." She finally answered timidly, rubbing her eyes like a tired child.
Spike gave her a quick once over look, noticing that she was wearing pyjama- pants that were far too wide and bulky for her delicate form.
Her black eyes met his.
" If you are looking for the slayer, she´s on the terrace soaking up some of that sun that would surely burn you to a cinder, having a little heart to heart with the lord of snow."
Her words were meant to burn, but it seemed as though there was no malice in her voice, only something resembling defeat.
Spike pursed his lips in surprise.
" Too tired to even insult me, pet?"
Siobhan gave him a weak grin.
" We both know that you are the only one who can make stating the obvious insulting. It drove Angelus quite mad if I recall correctly."
That thought never failed to make Spike grin wickedly. Yeah …..peaches had hated that.
Siobhan stepped closer.
" She is a special one…..that girl, if she can make both you and him fall in love with her so ……. Take it from someone who knows; be careful William."
Siobhan stepped even closer to him, leaning her forehead onto his chest for a moment.
Spike just stood there, transfixed, staring down at her silvery white hair and those tiny shoulders.
She was even smaller than Buffy.
" Love .."
Siobhan said it so very quietly that for a moment Spike was not sure if she had spoken at all. But then the Banshee stepped back from him, lifting her head to look him into the eyes.
" Love is so very powerful, William.We both know that it can give us wings, but it can just as easily break us. Love does not just create, it also destroys. Look around you, do you think that right now there is even one creature in this house who has not been branded by its power?"
Siobhan hugged herself tightly, as though she was cold.
"It has destroyed me and I let it happen. I brought this over myself, I know that all too well.I let it destroy me, just as Len let himself almost be destroyed. And one day it will destroy the lord of snow too."
Spike stepped back a little further to look into her upturned face, so innocent and angelic and yet frightening in the half- shadow of the corridor.
The human camouflage was gone. She had abandoned it along the way, just like one would step out of a fancy dress and leave it on the floor. Now her appearance had that distinct otherworldliness that had lured many a lonesome traveller from their path……
" What do you mean?"
Siobhan rolled her eyes, her grey fingers raking through her silvery hair.
" Oh please!" she said impatiently, " The slayer saw it……you had to see it too. Don´t tell me you don´t get it! Fire and ice? The living flame and the lord of snow?"
She leaned in, her voice low and husky.
" You know exactly what I´m talking about, so don´t pretend with me ….you have to know! William the Bloody in love with the slayer …….it´s pretty much the same thing!"
" Getting bored here, Siobhan!" Spike returned with irritation.
" I think I´ve had about all the lectures I can tolerate!"
" Temptation …clear and simple. For you it´s the slayer, for Liath it is the one thing that might end him …..fire….the contrary element! Have you ever touched him? He´s even colder than you are….."
" Hey!"
" And Sian is pure heat and he longs for that fire, longs for what the one thing he cannot feel, the thing he can not touch. Desire, love …it´s like a desperate yearning, like hunger or thirst……you know it! And the temptation is imminent. One day the lord of snow will try to quench that thirst, put an end to the yearning ……and the only question which remains is this: Will the cold suffocate the flame and extinguish the fire, or will Sian´s heat melt the ice and consume all that he is?It really does not matter, for it will be the end of both of them!"
" So what are you saying?"
" He is a liability! We need to be careful, William! Love ….is a liability!
Not even the princess can escape it. That´s the reason I serve her, so that …maybe …at least this will come to a good end."
She shook her head, looking at Spike with glittering, dark eyes.
" You love the slayer…I know that. And she feels for you too, you are in her heart, William.
Don´t let it destroy her …or you."
It was the voices that drew her in. Buffy knew that and yet she followed the bittersweet song through the mansion, up the stairs.
Somewhere in time, I know
Darling, you´ll come back to me
Roses will bloom again
Spring feels like eternity
She had dozed off in the sun-chair. Only later the slayer had noticed that someone had positioned a sun-shade in front of her, so that she didn´t get a sunburn.
A cool wind had woken her up.
She was almost embarrassed to realize that it was late afternoon already. Neither Liath nor any of the other fairies were anywhere to be seen. She was alone.
Just as she had made up her mind to find Spike, the singing had started.
Two sweet, female voices singing a duet………voices too beautiful and clear to be true…..unnatural voices.
In your kiss
It wasn´t goodbye
You are still the reason why
I can hear you whispering in the silence of my room
My heart still surrenders like the sun to the moon
I can barely stand this aching burning endlessly
Love me now ; forever
Where the last words you said to me
Buffy followed the singing up the stairs and down the corridor to a half- opened door.
Selena´s room……
The princess was sitting at the window, looking out while the banshee was busy combing her shining, multi- coloured hair.
They did not seem to detect Buffy´s presence; at least they gave no sign of it, if they did.
Just staring at the picture in front of her made Buffy wonder if this was yet another of the fairy´s manoeuvres to manipulate her …or if it was indeed a random coincidence.
Still …she stood there, staring at the two of them, listening to their mesmerizing voices.
And when the morning comes
My hands still reach out for you
Some things we´ll never say
There is nothing I can do
I can barely get through the day
Since the day you went away
"Buffy!" The low whisper sent shivers up her spine, low and hoarse and with an unmistakable accent.
She turned her head to find Spike standing in the doorway of his room, motioning her to follow him as he turned away.
I can hear your whisper in the silence of my room
My heart still surrenders like the sun to the moon
I can barely stand this aching burning endlessly
Love me now forever
Where your last words to me
He closed the door behind her, before he turned his attention back to the slayer.
Buffy felt her hands curl into fists. The impulse to just cross the distance between them and walk right into his arms was overbearingly strong.
In the shadows of the room his face, half shrouded in darkness, was incredibly handsome.
He was still wearing the dark jeans he had worn the night before, but he had changed into a new grey shirt, more formfitting than the black one.
She knew that the body underneath that shirt was hard and cold, like polished white marble. She did not mind the cold anymore. It had troubled her at first, now that cold meant comfort to her.
And right now ….she longed for that comfort …….she wanted to be held by those cold, strong arms. And yet she could not bring herself to take that step.
Instead she hugged her arms around herself as though she felt chilly.
When will you find your way across the endless sea?
With starlight above to guide you to me
Waves crashing on distant shores
They are calling our names forever more
Spike furrowed his brow.
" You alright, pet? You look a little edgy."
" Yeah …just a little shaken up, you know…….it´s nothing!"
She looked up, right into his incredibly blue eyes. Sometimes – even when they had still been enemies- she was sure that those eyes saw right through her.
" I think I get it now…." She told him quietly.
" What?"
" What you told me before, how they are not like us ….you were right. I get it now, the whole glamour thing. You said that Selena is toning it down for my benefit and that may be true, but…"
" Go on…"
" I think she is still using it, not against you or Siobhan, because she doesn´t need to, but in a way she is still using it to influence me. She´s not making herself seem more beautiful or impressive than she really is. I think it´s the opposite, she is using it to make herself appear more human. I mean …just listen to them singing ……Siobhan was right, no mortal has a voice like that."
And I can hear your whisper in the silence of my room
My heart still surrenders, like the sun to the moon
And I can barely stand this aching, burning endlessly
Love me now
Forever
Where the last words you said to me…
There was a moment of silence between them as they both listened to the song. When it ended Buffy was only too aware that it was a love-song. The power of two preternatural voices meeting in the end of the song made her shiver, almost choke. The sadness seemed to have gone straight to her heart.
Spike tried to banish the worried expression from his face, assuming a neutral look. On the one hand he as relieved that Buffy was seeing the whole fairy lot with more suspicion, on the other hand he could still see the pull of their attraction that even his slayer couldn´t shake completely.
He could see the conflicting emotions playing over her face. No matter how much that girl tried to be guarded about her feelings, they were usually written on her face in red ink.
" Somehow I don´t think it´s just me she´s trying to deceive….."
" No use in playing me and the banshee, pet. Who else is there?"
Buffy averted her gaze, still fighting the urge to just move over and touch him. She could almost feel the cold, smooth skin under her fingers…..but she didn´t. She couldn´t just run to him every time she felt like it ….every time it suited her needs.
He loved her, he had said it a thousand times ….all she had ever done was use him…..and now she couldn´t tell anymore if what she wanted was wrong or right.
He had sacrificed so much already, he deserved better …..
She squeezed her eyes shut, shaking her head.
" Herself, I think she is trying trying to persuade herself that she is not all that scary, that there are things that she is not capable of."
Buffy looked up, straight into the vampire´s eyes.
"What do you think?"
Spike shrugged.
" I can´t tell with them, love. Never could. But I think that she really wants this Cay back and she´ll do what she has to in order to make that happen."
Buffy nodded. She hated to admit it, but it made sense to her. It was even something that she could understand and relate to.
If it were her …….but it was her, she realised suddenly.
She had come here to protect Spike, to make sure that Selena wouldn´t take him from her.
The thought of never seeing him again, never bantering with him again…….never being able to just reach out her hand and touch him. The thought made her so sick to her stomach that she couldn´t even breathe.
She needed him. Sometimes she wanted to be close to him so much that it hurt.
And still she couldn´t bring herself to tell him.
Spike´s brows knit together as he watched the apparent change in her facial expression.
" What is it, love?"
Buffy put one hand over her mouth, returning Spike´s inquisitive gaze.
Now, finally she understood. She couldn´t say why she hadn´t seen it before, but now that she did….
" I get it now, Spike. I really think I do, what she is doing, why she is doing it. Liath said we were not that different she and I and he is right."
" Are you sure you´re alright, pet?" Spike asked, carefully touching her arm.
Buffy smiled sadly, covering his hand with hers.
" I get it now, if it were me ……I´d do the same thing. If I was in her place, I´d move heaven and earth to get back what was taken from me…..no matter what the cost."
