Under your Spell by Marianne

Chapter 2.

The tall figure in a long black cloak said in a deceptively soft voice, "Where is the vampire?"

Everyone in the room flinched and tried to look anywhere but in his eyes. The figure spoke again. "I asked a question." He smiled, and they shrank back, shuddering.

One braver than the others said, in a quavering voice, "Egris failed my lord. He was interrupted at the end of the enchantment and someone else claimed the vampire."

"Someone else?"

"Yes my lord Savos, a, a woman. She is believed to be the Slayer."

The black-cloaked being hissed his fury. "You have a day to correct this matter." With that, Savos swung round, his cloak flaring, and left the room.

The feeling of relief in the room was palpable.

When Buffy and Spike reached her home, she sailed straight in and was half way up the stairs, before she realised that he'd not followed her. She ran back down again, remembering the dis-invite spell and was just in time to see him continually crashing into the barrier and then collapsing to the floor.

"Oh, this is getting really old!" She grumped. "Come in Spike – dowhatyouwantandsaywhatyouwant!"

"Look slayer, I'm the injured party here, how about cutting me some sodding slack." He looked at her with fury, as he regained his feet.

"Listen you – I'm this close to making you stake yourself. Shut up and sit down!" Buffy groaned, as he obeyed her immediately. "Oh, hell, this is gonna take some getting used to." She was really going to have to watch every word she said to him, it would be so easy to say something casually like "go stake yourself" and he'd be dust before she could stop him. Evil as he was, annoying as he was, he didn't deserve a death like that. She sighed, gave him the remote and putting on the TV, fled upstairs to have a nice long, hot shower. After she had dressed, she felt a whole lot better, until she remembered the demon downstairs.

"You any closer to thinking of who might've done this to you?" Buffy asked curiously, sitting next to him on the sofa. "'Cos, I, for one, would like to wring their neck! This is gonna put a real crimp in my style." She continued, complaining under her breath about how she was going to explain being accompanied by a skinny, badly-dressed, bleached blonde vampire, to the people she met.

She glanced round at him and flinched when she saw the hatred in his eyes at his enforced silence. Again, that strange feeling of sympathy for him rose in her mind. "Yeah, okay, it's probably a smidgeon worse for you, with the not being able to speak or move without my say-so thing." He looked as if he was about to explode. "All right, just try not to piss me off all the time and I'll do the saywhatyouwantanddowhatyouwantSpike thing."

Spike gasped and obviously choked back a sarcastic remark, jumped to his feet and started to pace up and down. He swallowed hard and said in a trembling voice, "About bloody ti....." He glanced at her and changed his mind. Grimacing and grinding his teeth he said carefully, "How about we go out and kill something – anything?"

She was about to remind him that she'd just showered, but one look at his pleading face, she nodded and, after writing a note for her mom, they headed out on patrol.

Spike fought with manic glee, taking out his frustration and rage on several unfortunate demons and when they'd encountered a large group of vampires, he had actually laughed as he'd massacred them. Buffy had kept back and only interfered when it looked as though he was in trouble, she knew that he needed this and didn't begrudge him the distraction. A few hours later, they made their way back to Revello Drive. Weary, dishevelled and hungry, Buffy lead the way up the path to her door, grumbling softly under her breath. It had been hard, not talking to each other, but they had agreed that if she said nothing to him and he kept his sarcastic and suggestive remarks to himself, then the spell wouldn't be invoked.

Neither of them noticed that they were being followed, so intent were they on their own thoughts, until it was too late. Out of nowhere, it seemed to them, a large group of demons attacked. They fought desperately and managed to take a lot of the demons out, but tired as they were, it was not enough. The last thing Buffy registered was Spike's agonised scream, as he was pulled away from her.

A/N Thanks for the feedback – you guys rock!! I try to reply to you personally, but to those I haven't been able to (cos of the lack of email address) THANK YOU! You are the people that inspire the writing.