Broken Origin II: Chapter Four
"Noooo! Don't touch it!"
"I have to fix it you big baby!"
"No! Stop it!"
"Keep it up, Slayer, and I'll yank the bloody thing the rest of the way off and beat you with it! Give me your elbow – "
"No way, Bleach Brain!"
"Sacrificial lamb!"
"Fang-faced parasite – Ow! Spike, stop it, that hurts!"
"Well, if you'd stop fighting me, it wouldn't hurt half so much, now, would it?" with a final, powerful upward jerk, Spike shifted the Slayer's dislocated shoulder back into place, ignoring the loud hiss of pain escaping from between her clenched teeth as she tried to stifle a scream. He straightened up and stepped back, his hands finally free to retrieve the burning cigarette clamped in one corner of his lips as she gulped and swallowed, and stared at the night sky, trying to pretend she wasn't sobbing.
Spike watched her, squinting through the smoke trailing upwards from his cigarette. He took a last deep drag from it and reached up to pull it from his lips before exhaling and flicking it away among the graves of the cemetery in a shower of orange sparks.
"You're gonna' live, you know," he told her dispassionately, eyeing her deathly pale face with impatience.
"Leave me alone, Spike," she answered miserably, her voice low and shaking. She shuddered as she gingerly tried to raise her arm.
"Hurts, don't it? Maybe next time you'll listen to me when I tell you the only way you can kill a Guaroknarl demon is by destroying it's heart."
The Slayer dropped her injured arm and glared at him in furious disbelief. "Spike, you told me its heart was in its ass!"
Spike shrugged. "Wasn't my fault you didn't take me seriously."
"Oh. My. God." She shook her head, closing her eyes as if she were grasping at the threads of her patience.
"Why did I let you come with me tonight?"
"Oh sure, act the martyr when I'm the one going out of my way to do you a favor."
The Slayer threw her hands up in the air in exasperation, and then yelped as she inadvertently tugged on the sore muscles in her arm and shoulder.
Spike sighed. "You'd better call it, Slayer. Won't be slaying much of anythin' else
tonight with that wounded wing of yours – if one called what you do 'slaying', that is."
The little blonde gnashed her pearly whites at him. "And just what would you call what I do?" she asked challengingly.
"I'd liken it to the reaction of a housewife when she's just seen a mouse," he said thoughtfully.
"What?!"
Spike smirked. "Yeah, y'know, screaming, hair-tearing, grabbing a broom, running for the high-ground and beating at Mickey with completely ineffectual swats…that's what you do in a fight."
"I do not!"
"Oh please, the minute you see a demon you totally fall apart."
"Well, that doesn't say much about you, does it Mr. Master Vampire, especially since you're the one who's been training me!"
Spike's smirk turned into a sneer, and a brutal glint came to his eyes.
That seemed to make her nervous, so he kept at it, staring her down until she looked away.
"I mean….well, come on, Spike. You wouldn't be qualified to teach special ed."
"Funny, figured you for ridin' the short bus to school anyway," Spike retorted angrily.
The Slayer seemed to know she'd pushed him too far, and she turned away with a forced snort, searching along the graves for her fallen sword.
"Why is it so quiet all of a sudden?" she asked, obviously trying to change the subject. "That was only the first demon I've seen all night – and this place was all but crawling with vampires the night I first came here." She straightened up with the blade in possession.
"You've got 'em scared, Slayer," Spike said very seriously, all the while laughing inside. "But it's the kind of scared that turns to angry. Most vampires are cowards by nature, pet. If we were all gadding around, making noise, blathering on about how we were gonna' end the world, your job would be a hell of a lot easier, wouldn't it? Don't feel left out, though. They'll probably start teaming up to get at you, soon enough. They'll have done for you if they catch you off your game. Not that you've ever really been on it. "
He hid a smile as she winced. How would she react to the knowledge that, in reality, he was secretly building her bad-ass rep? He almost wished he could tell her, now – it would be the ultimate set down, finding out he was following behind her night after night, slaying all those demons and vamps, making it look as if she were the devil-slayer incarnate with the brutal mercilessness of her kills.
The cloud-cover tonight had only helped him move things along. While she'd been taking care of the dolts in the cemetery, he'd stepped out for a few, and helped along the rumor even more. Sure as they were standing here, the lone vampire he'd allowed out of his grasp was making a panicked round of the town, telling stories of the Slayer and elevating her already legendary status to impossible heights.
The Master was going to be forced to act soon, and when he did, Spike would make his move…
The Slayer looked around the silent cemetery, a deep weariness etched on her face. She held one hand over her bruised ribs, and hunched slightly because of the wrenched muscle in her back.
"I guess I might as well head back to the crypt. Just because it is so quiet and all," she hastened to add.
Spike tilted his head to one side. "Ri-ight. Just because it's so quiet."
"Oh…just shut-up and go bite some bimbo already," she grumbled, already stalking away.
Why the hell not? He was getting bored with the Slayer anyway, he told himself. There was always some kind of entertaining dark work to be done elsewhere. Besides, he was getting hungry…
"Yeah, I think will just do that… and you know what? I'll pretend she's you!"
Buffy gulped at his words, her footsteps suddenly unsure across the uneven ground. If what she'd witnessed the night before was any example – but she wasn't going there! She kept walking, intent on leaving Spike and the anything but peaceful, 'Peaceful Acres' behind. Besides, as Spike had so cruelly reminded her, she badly needed to bathe…and the twenty she snitched from the corpses pocket was burning a hole in her pocket.
"Keep in mind, we've got an understanding, Spike," she called back, reminding him. "Pretend all you want, but if you 'pretend' too far and end up killing her, I'll 'pretend' to stake you, got it?"
"I'll shove that bloody stake of yours where the sun don't shine if you don't watch it, 'got it'?"
"Bite me, Albino Boy!"
"Don't tempt me!"
Biting her cheek in anger, Buffy continued on, slowly making her way through the fog.
She knew that she had cleared the cemetery of vampires – and one demon - tonight, but something in the air just didn't feel right…
Behind her, a fuming Spike struck a match on a stone angel statue and lit his cigarette, grumbling threats under his breath as he shook out the flame and flicked the matchstick to the ground.
Up ahead, Buffy felt something pass behind her – something that felt big. She froze, listening, and then squealed as something seemed to grip her rear. She jumped and whirled, bringing er sword up in front of her, taking a few quick steps back from where she'd been standing. She stared sightlessly into the swirling gray of the night.
"Spike?"
Spike took a deep drag off his cigarette and rolled his eyes at the sky when he heard her voice.
"Spike?!" her voice came again, sounding frightened and uncertain. "Spike!"
"Jesus, what is it now?" he finally asked, just to get her to shut-up.
Buffy swallowed in relief when he finally answered, even if he did just sound pissed off. "Spike…did you just…grab my ass?"
His voice came from far behind her, echoing eerily across the silent cemetery. "Oh, yeah, you'd like to think so, wouldn't you? As if I have nothin' better to do than stand around and grope your cold, bony little arse. Don't flatter yourself, pet. "
Buffy felt her mouth drop open at the insult, and started walking back towards the sound of his voice, forgetting the thing in the dark.
"Oh, so you noticed my butt, did you?"
Spike growled something she couldn't hear as she came back up on him, and she stopped in front of him, hands on her hips.
"Who are you to call me skinny, anyway?"
"Hey! This is all muscle, baby. M'not skinny, I'm lean. There's a world of difference."
"Yeah, well I'm half-starved, not skinny. It's not like I really had a choice, anyway, Spike."
"You can't blame that on me, I didn't kidnap you in the first place! You can thank those two morons you dusted back in L.A. for that!"
"You didn't kidnap me," Buffy scoffed. She crossed her arms, the sword dangling from one hand.
Spike drew himself up indignantly. "Hell, no, I didn't! I wouldn't have bothered kidnapping you – I'd have just killed you on the spot and been done with. I bloody wish I had killed you the first night I saw you!"
"Are you saying you had nothing to do with…with my parents being killed?"
Spike looked thoughtful before he answered. "Yeah, that's exactly what I'm telling you. I had those two idiots banished for days before they got the incredibly stupid idea to bring you to me. Thought it'd get 'em back in my good graces, or somethin', I suppose. Didn't work." He paused and glanced at her. "You really don't remember that night?"
"Of course I remember it!" Buffy bitterly exclaimed. "I beheaded my Watcher, and saw my parents get murdered! I woke up in a pitch black room with a vampire stalking me! How could I forget?"
"No, I mean before that, before you woke up in the tank. When I – " Spike abruptly cursed and went silent.
"Before? You mean - ?" Buffy lifted her arm and looked at the white scar on her wrist. "I knew it was from you, but I didn't remember just when you'd done it! You bastard! I was suffering from some kind of temporary mental breakdown, and you bit me?!"
"You started it, I'll have you know – you don't just kick a bloke in the boys n' get away with it!"
"God, I hate you! You're a jerk, you really are!"
"Yeah, well, keep remembering that…we both might just get out of this alive."
"What?" Buffy stared at him in confusion, but Spike's eyes were slightly wide and fixed on a spot several feet above her head. Her skin started crawling, and she heard the rush of air coming at her head just before she threw herself down onto her back.
A huge, meaty, scaly black claw passed just over her head, and there was a deafening roar of fury when the huge demon standing over her realized it had missed it's prey. The noise was so loud it hurt her ears, and she had to cover them with her hands as the demon roared again.
Buffy flipped up onto her feet again, this time managing the maneuver without falling on her ass, but lost her sword in the process. She dodged another swipe from the demon's claws and ran over to take cover with Spike behind the big, heavy angel statue.
Apparently the demon didn't have very good eyesight, since it seemed to have completely missed the direction she'd run in. A good twelve feet tall, it stomped around on cloven feet, making the ground shake beneath their feet.
"Why the hell is it so pissed?" Buffy yelled at Spike over the racket the demon was making.
"Don't you think it looks a bit familiar?" Spike shouted back.
Buffy peeked over the base of the angel statue and eyed the demon's iridescent black skin, and twisty horns, which grew armor-like out of the tops of its shoulders. She took in the fiery, ice green eyes, and the long spiked tail growing out of the base of it's spine.
"It's another Guaroknarl?"
"Yeah! Think this one must be a male!"
"Oh, crap," Buffy muttered. "We killed it's mate?" she yelled.
"Ha! You killed it, you mean! I had nothin' to do with it!" Spike stood up and turned to shout at the Guaroknarl as it finally sniffed out their hiding spot and stampeded toward them. "She's the one you want, mate, not me!"
Buffy growled in her throat and smacked the vampire's arm down as he pointed right at her. "Spike, you're a pig!" Furious, she dove over the base of the statue, and rolled into a standing position behind the rampaging demon, her sword now in hand.
"Fuck!" Spike threw himself facedown on the ground as the demon swung it's club-like tail and crushed the angel statue, sending huge chunks of the heavy marble flying through the air.
Buffy's muscles tightened in alarm. "Hey!" she called, trying to the demons attention. It didn't turn though – it just kept going right for Spike, who was lying on the ground, covered in stone dust and splintered marble. He wasn't moving and she felt her heart skip a beat.
"Hey, you!" Buffy bent and picked up a broken piece of the statue, flinging it at the back of the demon's head. It didn't even faze it.
The demon reached out a massive claw to grab the vampire by his head. Buffy didn't doubt that if it locked it's claws around Spike's head, it'd crush his skull with a mere twitch of it's fingers.
Buffy decided that wasn't happening. If anyone was going to make Spike go all dusty, it was going to be her.
Breaking into a run, she hefted the sword in both hands and was ready to jab it's point through the touch skin covering the Guaroknarl's rump and pierce it's heart when the demon suddenly turned on her, Spike dangling limp from one hand.
Buffy almost drew up short, but the swing of the demon's tail kept her from doing that. She kept going, jumping over the lethal spikes as they swung at her, and then skidded under the demon, sliding between its tree trunk legs as she swung the sword in an upward arc, nearly splitting it in half. The demon let out another brain-rattling roar as Buffy came out behind it, spattered in Guaroknarl blood and other fluids she didn't even want to think about. She saw Spike go flying through the air, and flinched in commiseration as he collided face-first with the ground. He'd wake up bitching, but at least he'd wake up.
The Guaroknarl clearly wasn't ready to give up yet. Its body was amazingly already attempting to heal itself, and Buffy belatedly remembered that she had to take out its heart. Wearily, she lifted the sword again, and almost casually poked the demon in its butt. Its legs immediately gave out, and it fell flat to the ground, instantly dead.
Buffy almost lost her balance as the demon's hulk impacting with the ground made it rumble under her feet, but she steadied herself, and swiped a sweaty shank of her hair out of her face. She watched as the huge demons carcass started to liquefy, and melt into the ground, much as the other one earlier in the evening had.
"Hmm, that's convenient," she said to herself out loud, "and also really gross."
"Sonofabitch!"
"Spike?" Buffy turned her head, and saw the vampire slowly sitting up, his hands clutching his head. She set her sword across one shoulder and slowly walked over to where he was, carefully avoiding the steaming demon Jell-O.
"Is my bloody face even still attached to my head?" Spike groaned, gingerly touching his face.
Sword still over her shoulder, Buffy crouched down next to him, one forearm resting across her thigh for balance. "Let me see," she said in a tired voice, trying to ignore the sudden agony from her much abused shoulder. It hurt so bad she was afraid she might have slipped the ball slightly out of it's socket again.
Spike swatted her away and stood on unsteady legs. "M'fine." He gave his head a good shake as if to clear it, cracked his neck, and resettled his duster on his shoulders before he looked at her. One side of his face looked a little red and scratched, and his nose looked like it had bled a little, but other than that he looked all right.
"How's your head?" she ventured to ask.
"I said I'm fine!" Spike snapped, and then he squeezed his eyes shut and pressed one palm to the back of his head. "I'm fine," he repeated stiffly.
Buffy doubted that, since she could see a fine trickle of blood running from under the hair at his nape down his neck and inside the collar of his black t-shirt. She was too wiped out to argue, though. "Whatever, I'm outtie. You can thank me for saving your ass later."
"You didn't save my ass, you got it good and bloody well kicked!"
Infuriated, Buffy opened her mouth to yell at him, but then shut it, and stood up, marching angrily out of the cemetery. Convincing him of how very wrong he was could wait until later…
…much later.
Her first stop was the crypt, to drop off her obvious sword, and pick up her clean jeans, and then she was off to the local all-night drugstore, where she picked up a few essentials – including a well-stocked First-Aid kit. She also made certain to leave a couple of bucks on the counter even after her transaction, to pay for the toothbrush she'd lifted the other day.
Buffy noticed the elderly clerk give her a funny look as she gathered up her purchases and left, and knew he'd recognized her as being the girl he'd practically chased out of the store in an effort to capture and turn over to the police. He didn't say anything, though, when he glanced down and saw the extra cash on the counter.
Buffy figured the old man had probably seen a heck of a lot more weirder things than some kid wandering in in the middle of the night, paying for a stolen item. He lived and worked on top of a Hellmouth, after all.
Outside the drugstore, she settled on a concrete bench between a potted tree and some newspaper machines, and took the cola and pre-packaged sandwich she'd bought out of her bag. She was very hungry, but she had a hard time eating it now that she had a chance to reflect on where the money for it had come from.
Thinking back on the fifty dollars a week she'd once received in allowance killed her. Remembering the stupid things she'd wasted it on made her cringe now. She'd been so thoughtless…and now she was lowering herself to stealing cash from the victims of vampire attacks. It made her stomach churn.
Buffy took a bottle of aspirin out of the sack, and gulped down four with the fizzing soda.
She didn't know if it was being around Spike, or just plain desperation that was making her slowly lose her morals. Maybe the Hellmouth was just sending out conscience-bendy vibes…
Setting the sandwich aside for a moment, Buffy sighed, and looked around the empty shopping district. The street lamps here were the old-fashioned black iron kind, with big, funny-shaped frosted glass globes covering the bulbs inside. They didn't throw out much light, leaving a lot of the street in shadows. She did make out a few of the lighted storefronts, though. There was a formal boutique across from her, the TV repair shop down from that, a Party Town party shop, a trendy outdoor coffee place on one corner, and very near that, a mysteriously lit place with wooden shutters drawn across it's windows and narrow, single front door. The sign above it proclaimed it the Dragon's Cove Magic Shop.
'Wonder if I could find a spell to make Spike disappear,' Buffy thought to herself sardonically as she examined the creepy storefront.
Maybe she could just find one to turn him human, or something…woudn't that be great? A spell that would turn all the vampires human again? She would never have to fight again…but surely that kind of magic didn't exist.
On second thought, though, maybe it did. If demons and vampires were real, why couldn't magic be real, too?
Buffy wondered idly for a minute what Spike had been like before he'd died. If what Merrick had told her about the master of Los Angeles had been true, then he would have to have lived way back in the last century.
Picking up her sandwich at last, and nibbling at it, armed with several years worth of reading bits of historical romances, she tried to envision Spike in old-fashioned evening clothes, and a starched white cravat. The image wasn't so unbelievable…and it was most definitely a flattering picture, but she somehow didn't think that he'd been a 'gentleman' of any kind.
Buffy mentally crossed out the dashing, formal image in her mind's eye, but tucked it away for later to secretly drool over.
'Nah,' she thought as she unscrewed the cap of her soda – for once not diet, because sadly, she needed the calories! - 'Spike definitely wasn't upper class. He was probably a thief, a pickpocket, or something.'
Yet even as she thought it, something seemed off about it. His accent might be from the lower class of the last century, but he was way too well educated to have been a common thief…more like Jack the Ripper. Ha. Maybe he -
Buffy wrinkled her nose as a funky odor caught her attention. She swallowed the last of her food and turned her head to see if she was sitting too near a ripe trash can, but there was nothing remotely close.
A terrible thing occurred to her, and she hesitantly lifted her sweat-damp shirt to her nose.
It was her.
"Ewww…"
Buffy sliced up a couple of her fingers on the transom pane again, getting back into the high school to get cleaned up.
Luckily, she wasn't nervous this time since she wasn't really in a hurry. It was only around two a.m., so she had plenty of time to maneuver. She actually wandered around a bit, learning the layout, and found a much easier way in for the future by pushing a small piece of folded paper between the locks of one of the older, ground floor classroom windows.
After a few minutes, she headed through the dark halls toward the locker rooms, stopping briefly to guiltily replace the box of Twinkies she'd nabbed the night before last. They weren't the same brand, but they'd been the best she could afford at the over-priced drugstore.
Feeling a little better that she at least attempted to right some of her wrongs, she proceeded to the showers and lost herself in the hot water for a while. When she got out, she rubbed her hand across the steamed mirrors and looked at herself closely. She wasn't terribly impressed with what she saw there.
A lot of the bruises she'd garnered over the past few nights had already gone away, and she realized her limp had disappeared without her even noticing it. She still had dark circles under her eyes from lack of sleep, though, and like Spike had said, her face – her whole body – was way too skinny. A massive bruise had bloomed over her injured shoulder, and it's dark color washed out her already pale skin, making her look like a corpse straight off an autopsy table.
Buffy didn't bother to wipe the glass again when it slowly began fogging over.
She had to leave the high school with her sweatshirt still damp from it's washing, but at least her jeans, torn and ragged as they were, were clean and dry. Her wet shorts were in a plastic bag swinging from her hand, along with her wet unmentionables.
She was walking across the front lawns again when a muffled yelp of surprise caught her ear, and she dropped the bag, pulling out her stake as she forced her stiff muscles into a run. She stopped near the big tree by the front entrance to the school, and snuck a look around it to see what was happening.
Spike had happened, apparently, and he was all vamped out and feeding off some poor girl – no, not just any poor girl. It was Willow!
Buffy wanted to scream. Why was the other girl here, out this late at night? Hadn't she warned her it wasn't safe? Hadn't she?!
Spike hadn't noticed she was here, yet.
Buffy winced, but stayed in the shadows, waiting guiltily, impatiently, for him to finish feeding…but the seconds ticked on, and he didn't stop. In fact, he didn't show any signs of stopping at all.
"Oh, no."
Buffy jumped out from behind the tree, did a flying tackle, and took Spike down with her as she pulled him off Willow. She let go of her hold on his duster as she struck the ground, rolling on her shoulder and swiftly coming back up to face the vampire as he did the same across from her. She stayed low, knees bent in a defensive crouch as she brandished her stake.
Spike stayed close to the ground too, one hand flat on the concrete as he regarded her through glowing gold eyes.
"Run along, Slayer. You've interrupted dinner."
Buffy stared at him steadily. "Not tonight. You need to back off." She glanced at Willow. "Are you alright? Did he hurt you?"
"I-I think so…but yeah, he hurt me." The girl looked hesitantly at her attacker, accusation, and pain in her eyes.
"Well, he won't anymore," Buffy said promisingly, still staring down the vampire.
Spike only snorted.
"Wow, you have a really rotten attitude," Willow noted self-righteously.
"Tell me about it," Buffy agreed, and then she crossed her arms over her chest.
"Now, do you mind telling me what the heck you're doing here? I told you it wasn't safe, didn't I?"
Willow stuttered. "I – well, we've been working on the library, getting it ready for the new librarian, and we left really late. I got home and almost fell asleep before I realized I'd forgotten to lock the door behind me. I can't believe I did that, I mean, I'm usually very responsible , and I called Xander because it gives me the creeps to come down here alone at night, and – "
Just then a rustling sound came from the trees behind them.
"Unh…I can't believe I just got put down by Billy Idol…"
Buffy had to fight the impulse to turn her head when she heard Xander's voice. She had the sense that he was picking himself up off the ground, though It was no wonder she hadn't known he was there. Spike had probably knocked him out and grabbed poor Willow…she cleared her throat guiltily as she continued to stare at Spike. She didn't know why she felt so betrayed. She ought to have known this was coming.
"We talked about this," she began, knowing she was probably risking her life.
She really didn't want to kill Spike. He was kind of her last tie to her parents, her life in L.A. – in a bizarre way - and to tell the truth, she really wasn't sure if she could.
Spike shook his head, losing his demon face, and raised up to stand on his feet. Buffy did the same, her eyes wary of any movement he made. He began pacing back in forth, his narrowed blue eyes never leaving hers, looking as if he felt caged.
"You talked, I listened, remember?" he snarled, jabbing a finger at her. "An' I don't recall ever tellin' you I'd come to heel like the family dog, Slayer. I'll go commit a bloody massacre if I feel like it, and don't you forget it!"
"Slayer? What the hell is - wait," Xander snapped at Buffy, "you know this guy?"
Buffy looked at the boy reluctantly. "Yeah…he's my 'roommate'."
'Well, there goes any chance of me having friends ever again', she thought sadly. She'd just confessed to knowing a vampire.
Willow was standing unsteadily, a hand clamped over the wound on her throat as she looked in between the two of them, disbelieving. "Oh…he's your…boyfriend?"
"What? No!" came from both sides at once.
Buffy sent the vampire a hateful glare, and Spike growled and sneered back. They were both obviously disgusted by the idea.
"I think you guys had better leave," Buffy finally said, throwing Willow and Xander an apologetic glance. Her muscles were tensing, and she felt an unholy throw-down coming on.
"Not until you explain what the hell is going on here," Xander protested. "This guy just attacked us!"
"Xander, he bit me," Willow said shakily. "I…I think he's a real…a real vampire."
Xander, who seemed like the type who never really shut-up, now moved his lips helplessly.
"I think he's beyond words at the moment," Buffy commented. "Don't worry, he'll snap out of it."
Xander looked as if she had offended him in some unforgivable way. "Hey! I'm never beyond words!"
"Look, I'm really sorry, but now just isn't the time," Buffy said pleadingly. "It's not safe here, and you really should get Willow to the hospital."
Xander looked like he would argue, but the sight of his friends pale and strained face apparently changed his mind. He rubbed the back of his sore skull with one hand and shuffled over to Willow, keeping his eyes on Spike the whole time. He pulled her arm over his shoulders, and with one last angry glare at Buffy and the vampire, he slowly led his friend off down the street.
Buffy watched them leave with sad regret, and then turned on Spike with a vengeance.
"You were going to kill her!"
A cunning look crossed Spike's face. "No, I wasn't," he said so calmly and reasonably that she could almost have believed him. Thankfully, she knew better.
"Might've gotten a bit carried away, but – "
"Go blow smoke up somebody else's ass, Spike! I saw you!"
"Slayer," he began warningly.
"No, I can't believe I actually thought you might stop killing if I threatened you! God, you must have been laughing behind my back the entire time!"
Spike slowly grinned, looking like a cat on the prowl. "Well…yeah."
A sudden thought occurred to her and she shook her head. "You knew I was there," she accused him, unaware of Willow and Xander's dumbfounded presence as they paused in the darkness several yards away and turned back to look at them.
"You knew I was there last night – that's the only reason you let that girl in the alley live!" Buffy hated the accusing, high-pitched tone of her voice. She sounded hurt, and she didn't want Spike to have the satisfaction of knowing she'd begun to have feelings for him. He'd laugh, and little wonder! It was crazy and stupid, and…and God, did she wish she'd never laid eyes on him!
"Come on, Slayer. Did you really think I wouldn't notice you following me? You sounded like a bloody herd of elephants."
Buffy's face burned. He'd seen her. He'd known she was watching…
"Yeah, I saw you…and you got quite the eyeful, didn't you, pet? You enjoy yourself?" he taunted.
Buffy swallowed. How could she deny it when the very sight of him did strange things to her insides?
"Why are you doing this?"
"Why not? Behaving myself doesn't hold much interest for me."
Of course not. That's because he's an evil, soulless demon, Buffy told herself harshly.
She'd been incredibly dumb to think she could co-exist even somewhat peacefully with a vampire. Spike killed – that's what he did, what his sole purpose in existing was.
And the sole-purpose of hers was to kill vampires…even ones who seemed…different. Spike killed, and he deserved a staking for that alone, but there was something about him, something…rare. She didn't know what, exactly. Something she would always regret seeing destroyed.
She tried to shake herself. He was evil, and that was it.
Buffy knew she was supposed to live an undoubtedly short life with a sudden, brutal death at it's end. She also knew that, despite the fact Spike had to die, she didn't have the skills yet to take him in a head-on fight…or, sadly, the will to.
"You know I'm going to have to kill you now," Buffy said flatly as they slowly began to circle each other on the school lawn.
"You can try. Wouldn't advise it, seein' as you only just learned the pointy end of a stake, but…" Spike shrugged.
"I have to…but I don't wanna' do this."
"Why not? We've been heading towards this since the night we met, love."
"I know," she admitted. "It's hard, though. I thought…"
"What? That we were becoming friends? Never that. We were enemies, certainly… never friends."
"And what are we now?"
"Dunno. Something else." Spike looked oddly discomfited for a moment, and he glanced away from her, absently scuffing the toe of one boot against ground.
"We don't have to do this now, y'know," he said after a minute. "I know you, now. Know how you move, how you think. You don't have a chance. I'll just kill you in the end."
Probably.
Buffy shook her head. "I can't just let you go, Spike. How could I ever trust anything you do, anything you say?
He shrugged again. "Not askin' you to. I'm a vampire, you're a Slayer. You can't trust me. You'd be fool to. I kill your kind, you slay mine - s'just the way the game is played."
The backs of Buffy's eyes began to burn, and Spike noticed the sudden wet sparkle in her eyes.
"Oh, quit pouting, baby," he drawled. "I could ride to town on that lower lip of yours."
Buffy's emotions were in a tangle. "Just…stop! Stop teasing me! Don't make this any harder on me than it already is!"
Everything about him suddenly turned hostile and cold. "Then quit tryin' to make it so bleedin personal! I don't care anything about you, and you're a fool if you think you care anything about me."
"I don't care about you!" Buffy yelled back in denial. "Do you hear me? I don't care! You're a vampire! I should've staked you days ago!"
"Fine then! Prove it. Hit me." He took a threatening step forward. "Stake me." Another. "I dare you to."
This was it. Buffy took a deep breath, blinking as she resolutely raised the stake in her hand. This was the part where she killed the villain of the piece, and walked away home to the cheers of …who? There was no home. There were no friends, no family to cheer, to congratulate her for doing the right thing, for a job well done, no hero's welcome…
There was just Spike.
Spike who was evil, and conscienceless, and would just as soon suck her dry instead of offering comfort, or a kind word. Spike, who had tricked her, and lied to her, and…
Buffy lifted the stake high, and brought it down.
When Spike blocked it, as she'd known he would, she fisted her other hand and hit him with an uppercut, throwing his head back, and making him stumble backwards…
Spike was making a marked effort to keep his anger in check as the little Slayer kept pummeling him, but it was a near thing. When she lost her stake and found a discarded glass bottle from somewhere and threw it at him, he dodged it, and felt his temper go up another notch.
He kept waiting for his demonic visage to take over, but it didn't – or wouldn't. He found himself not really wanting to hurt her, which was absolutely ridiculous.
'She saved your bloody life, and you know it,' some voice inside his head kept taunting.
The urge to annihilate it, to wipe it out completely, almost sent him into a black rage. The Slayer kept coming at him, her kicks, and punches annoying him, aggravating the beast, and he tried to tell her to back off, to stop…but it was too late. His temper had slipped the leash. His face vamped, and he smiled at her through his fangs.
Spike hit her with a kick so powerful she left her feet and flew through the air, landing hard on her back. He stalked over to her, ready to bite out her throat, but when he leaned over her to grab her by the neck, she kicked out at him, nearly catching him in the balls. That ticked him off even more, and he ended up savagely booting her in the side. He heard a couple of her doubtless already cracked ribs pop, and she cried out and rolled a few feet, onto her opposite side, clutching her abdomen.
Spike thought that was that, but the Slayer wouldn't stay down. She dragged herself up, even as she had to know she didn't stand a snowballs chance in Hell against him, and managed to kick his legs out from under him. He hit the sidewalk with enough force to jar his teeth, and she leapt astride him, wrapping her hands around his throat. He could tell she was trying to rip his head off – he could also tell that her heart wasn't in it. It was just the sign of weakness his demon had been waiting for.
His hand groped, found the glass beer bottle she'd thrown at him a minute ago, and his fingers wrapped around the broken neck of the bottle. Likewise, the Slayer had found her stake, and was getting ready to put it in his chest – but she hesitated a second too long. He grabbed her wrist in a crushing grip, stilling the downward motion. In the instant that she wrenched her hand free of his hold and finally drove the stake down, he had the broken bottle between them, and the Slayer let out a loud gasp of pain before she dropped the stake and scrambled backwards off of him, her hands clapped over her mouth.
Before he knew what he was doing, Spike was on his feet again, cursing and throwing the bottle into the street, where it violently shattered. The Slayer's blood had sprayed all over him, and he could smell it. It nearly made him crazed. He turned back towards the girl, who was on her knees, obviously hurt, yet fighting not to make a sound. Her hands were still pressed tight against her lips, and blood was now pouring from between her fingers.
The sight of it made his eyes hurt. Far from gaining an immense amount of pleasure and satisfaction from her pain, the panicked look in the Slayer's eyes made something in his chest ache. He took a hasty step backwards in denial as his demon's face suddenly receded.
"You bastard! What the hell did you do to her?"
As if in a daze, Spike looked up, saw the boy he'd tangled with earlier running back up the walk toward him, his little girlfriend fast behind.
The Slayer let out a whimper, finally, and she tried to stand up, moving her hands in an attempt to try and ward the boy off.
Spike saw the wound, then, a jagged, thin slice right across her upper lip, leading down onto her lower, ending on her small chin. It was a hideous sight, and he knew the cut ran deep…
For some reason he kept wondering if she'd ever be able to smile at him again.
The Slayer looked at him, fear and hurt in her eyes, and Spike took another step back…and another, until he finally turned on his heel and quickly walked away.
Xander caught Buffy just as she wavered, her body falling toward the concrete. He almost dropped her again in surprise when he caught sight of her face.
"Let's take her inside," Willow said hurriedly, trying hard not to flinch when Buffy looked at her, her eyes going blank.
Willow ran up the steps of the school to the door, thankful now that she'd forgotten to lock it because she'd lost the keys in the dark when the vampire had attacked them, and…oh, wow, vampires were real! A wave of dizziness swept over her, and she caught the door as Xander rushed by with Buffy in his arms, steadying herself until it passed. When she could move again, she followed her friend down the dark, moonlit halls, her heart racing in her chest, for fear of what had happened, fear for Buffy, fear that the vampire might come back and finish them all off…
Xander carefully laid Buffy down on the cot in the nurse's office, and backed off, running his hands through his hair again and again as if he didn't know what else to do.
Willow snapped on the office light, and then got on her knees next to her, her long hair swinging over her shoulder. She stared, transfixed at the amount of blood on Buffy's clothes. "Oh, God – Xander, we have to call an ambulance, or something. She needs to get to the hospital!"
Buffy's eyes opened. "No…no…hospital." She couldn't go to a hospital, the police, the authorities…they'd take her away -
"But, Buffy – "
Buffy sat up on the cot, clutching her side. "No hospital! I'll run away if you – if you make me, I swear - !"
"Alright, okay, no hospital!" Willow finally agreed, eagerly shaking her head. "Please, just relax! I swear I won't tell anyone you're here!"
Buffy lay down on her back, drawing shallow breaths to ease the pain in her ribs. "It…hurts," she gasped, wincing at the harsh sting in her cut lips.
Willow hovered over her, her brown eyes wide and worried. "Xander is trying to find something to bind your ribs with. Don't worry, Buffy, we'll take good care of you, promise."
The room was blacking out, but Buffy didn't care. With the darkness came a temporary reprieve from the pain, from her duty….from a crushing sense of betrayal.
The crypt somehow felt empty without her.
Having yanked off his duster and the t-shirt that had the Slayer's blood all over the front of it, Spike lay on his bare back on one of the cold stone tombs, staring at the ceiling as he fought to go to sleep.
He'd felt the dawn come and go a long time ago, and still the Slayer hadn't returned…had he torn her up so badly?
He was a demon, a vampire. He'd always relished killing, and he'd been clever at it. He didn't have a soddin' conscience, yet here he was, suffering the agony of the damned knowing he'd scarred her face for life. He sat up with a snarl.
"Bloody hell!"
The girl was nothing but a means to an end, a plaguing fancy perhaps – that was all. What the fuck did he care if she got scarred? It wasn't the end of the world! Hell, he had one himself, was damned proud of it, in fact…
The look of betrayal in her big green eyes as she'd looked up at him, her mouth bleeding, had just about eaten him alive.
The scars he knew he'd left on the inside of her were what was bothering him the most.
Forcing aside the long absent feelings of guilt, Spike turned onto his side and threw his forearm across his eyes. He tried drawing in some air, and forcing it out in a rough sigh, but it didn't begin to ease the foreign ache in his chest. He hadn't felt this bad since Dru had left him –
Spike clenched his fist and his eyes shut with a low growl.
Enough was enough. The next time he saw Buffy, he was bloody well gonna' kill her.
To be Continued in Chapter Five…
A/N: I'd like to note that a lot of the credit for this chapter - and the one previous - goes to my brother, Kevin, who came to the rescue on a lot of stuff. It wouldn't be half as bad without him! (j/k!) Love ya, bro! Anyway, sorry for the delay, and thanks for reading everyone!
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