Chapter 32: Blinded by Security

Disclaimer: No ownership. I'm just perpetually on my knees before the altar of Jossverse. :P.

Rating: I think I'm boring everyone to death repeating the same thing each time. See the first fourteen chapters if you haven't, yet :)

Summary: This is the summary of the last couple of chapters and anything important I thought needed to be added. :D.

AU from the ending of Season 4. Not is all emotional angst… there are glimpses of a new Big Bad arising. Such a Big Bad that the Council has gotten rather worried and is thinking of making contact with Buffy again. Two new characters of Frederick, Travers' nephew, and Elspeth, Travers' daughter, added. Elspeth thinks of Buffy as a person, Frederick as an old-fashioned Council person would. Buffy has also revealed some interesting thoughts about Spike as she struggles to deal with her confusion, resulting in an intriguing conversation with Willow. Cassandra, Dawn, and Daniel have also started vaguely discussing what they'd seen the previous night. The gang met up at Giles' house where he explains that the Council has been spying on them and making their own conclusions about the Big Bad, and they did the enjoinment spell again… only Spike refused to let them in and it resulted in a magical ripple that injured Giles. Cue in the familiar scene of Sunnydale Hospital…

Riley also decides to drop in here, having a small talk with Xander about how he's hurt Buffy. Also, Cassandra and Daniel have taken advantage of the situation to do a little study…

A/N (Thank-you very much to kim, escudo, and Autumnevening for your reviews! I'm sorry for prolonging the suspense… hopefully you'll find some answers answered in the next few chapters. :D. Escudo: you will have found that I have changed and uploaded every single chapter anew with this new format of having everything non-story related in bold. Hopefully this will clear up your confusion. And thanks for your kind words, Autumnevening. :D. I'm glad you're enjoying it.

Here, I must apologize for the really, really, really large delay. The reason is that I actually had to spend two nights uploading and changing all of the chapters to the new format, and also as I have exams very soon and it's been hectic. Rest assured, however, that after exams (in three weeks time) I shall be posting regularly again. :D. Thank you so much for being patient. Now onto our regularly scheduled chapter! I hope you enjoy. )

8 8 8

The wind rushed past his face as he ran, calling upon all of his vampiric speed to chase after the figure running away from him. It wasn't a hunt. What was it?

"Wait up, will you!" he yelled.

Instantly, the figure stopped, and turned around. Spike stumbled back at the bright light that encompassed it, shielding his eyes with a gasp. Not sunlight. More… holy? Through the golden fire, he could make out features of an androgynous beauty. When it opened its mouth, he stared in wonder as two voices came out, a man and a woman's, weaving together in a perfect harmony.

"You have been chasing me long, William the Bloody. Why?"

The bleached blonde vampire tentatively stood up and walked closer, until he was around one meter away. Then, for no apparent reason, he felt his legs move and he knelt, staring down at the ground where it had trod. Words sprung to his mouth unassisted.

"Because I am your slave, Mistress."

It laughed, then, a bell-like tone that sounded beautiful to his ears. It reached forwards and cupped two fingers underneath his chin and raised his face to look into its eyes. He avoided them.

"Look at me, William."

He refused. "I… I am not worthy."

Another laugh, but the fingers became firmer. "You have blood on your hands, on every part of your body, yes. But you are worthy, for you still chase me, do you not?"

His voice cracked. "Yes. Forever."

It began to fade, then. "You have much of me already. Just a few more steps, William. Keep holding on like you always have. And never give up."

A flash of Spike snapped back. "I'm not one for giving up."

It laughed again. "That's what we're counting on…"

8 8 8

"Thank you. I-I'll be fine, thanks."

Giles sighed as he moved creakily through the door, utter exhaustion paling his face. Joyce looked on in concern.

"Are you alright?" she asked again. "If you want, we can come in for a while."

She watched as Cassandra and Daniel said their last goodbyes to Dawn and joined them on the threshold. Giles did too, a weary smile crossing over his face. The first three weeks living with two teenagers had been incredibly trying for him. He was used to waking up to silence.

Giles woke with a gasp, and then slumped back onto his pillow with a sigh. It was a dream. Just a bad dream. He sat up and stretched slightly in his bed, and then relaxed again. Buffy wasn't coming over to train for another two hours, so he could afford another extra half-hour before his daily run today. Just as his eyes were about to fall, though, there was a timid knock on his door.

He sat bolt upright immediately, confusion turning to suspicion and even a hint of fear. It couldn't be Buffy; she would have rung if she was coming this early. There was no one else in the house, nothing wrong… a demon? Dead silence pervaded the house. The nightmare he'd experienced only five minutes ago jolted his fear.

The knock came again, and then the door creaked open. He let out an unmanly shriek. "Get back! I know who you are!"

"Whoah, sorry," Daniel stepped back. "I just wanted to ask you where the milk was."

Giles' heart began beating again. "Give me a few minutes," he said faintly, waving him away. "I'll come down."

Daniel winced at his expression. "Sorry, I shouldn't have bothered you."

"Just give me a few minutes…"

"Giles?"

Giles snapped back to reality. "Sorry… um, I was thinking about something."

Joyce looked at him concernedly. "Are you sure you're okay, Giles?"

"Oh… oh yes, I am," he said distractedly. "Cassandra, Daniel? Are you coming in?"

They waved one last time and slipped in beside him. Joyce shifted her purse onto her shoulder with one last worried glance. "Are you sure that you will be okay? Because Buffy's staying out tonight, we can keep you company for a while without bothering her. Or we could ring her and…"

"No, really," Giles chuckled tiredly. "I'm sure I've taken enough of your time today. I'm sorry."

"Don't be," she shook her head. "You're welcome."

He offered a shy, Giles-like smile. "I-if you want, you can all come over sometime for dinner."

"When your arm is better," she smiled back. "That would be nice. Now, look after yourself. And Cass? Dan? Look after him."

"We will," Daniel grinned.

He watched her as she walked back down to the car where Dawn was waiting. Watched the car speed off into the night. He sighed, and shifted his arm again, wincing as the resulting pain snaked through his entire body. The painkillers were still in effect, but he found they only dulled it slightly.

"Don't do that," Daniel reprimanded him as he guided him to a chair. "Sit and rest for a while."

Giles gave him a half-irritated, half-amused look. "You don't have to mother me, you know."

"I'm not mothering you," he replied practically. "I'm looking after you because your shoulder's fractured."

"So, who's cooking then?" Giles raised an eyebrow.

"I am," Cass moved quietly out of the kitchen, a gentle smile on her face as she watched Daniel minister his 'medical' knowledge. "I might not be as good as you or Dan, but I'm sure I'll be able to do something while Dan shows off."

"Hey," he objected, grinning at her gentle teasing. "I do not show off."

"Mr. My-dad-is-a-doctor," she laughed.

Giles coughed, and sighed. And he'd had to deal with the teenage banter as well.

8 8 8

It faded, and he found himself kneeling in the dust. It rose up around him, hazing him in a cloud of grey. He stood, slightly shaking, and immediately controlled himself. Instinctively, his hands went to his body, but his duster had vanished.

"Just when I needed some smokes," he muttered, moving out of his meagre protection cautiously. A growing sense of unease quickly swallowed the peace the touch of the being had given him. Something was around. He could smell it, taste it, feel it…

"Hello, vampire."

Spike spun around as all of his danger senses went into overdrive. He stared in wary suspicion at the small man in around three meters in front of him, around a head shorter than him. His only weapon appeared to be his long, curved metallic claws that seemed fused to his hand. Despite his unimpressive physical stature, Spike felt himself tensing. This person was dangerous.

"My name's William the Bloody," he grinned, his fangs extending a little. "Or Spike. What's yours?"

Before the man could reply, Spike was already moving. He spun around in a flurry of roundhouses before he was bodily thrown by one whipping leg. He quickly recovered from his shock and bounced back onto his feet, eyeing his opponent even more warily now at how easily his attack was fended off.

"Well now," the murmured calmly, stroking his talons. "For all you knew I could be trying to help you."

"I know you're not," the bleached-blonde answered.

"But you have no evidence that supports that," the man pointed out reasonably, watching as Spike circled him.

"I can feel it in my blood," Spike snapped. "That's good enough for me."

"And you trust your blood all the time?"

"Never let me down."

The man suddenly attacked, raking his claws across Spike's cheek. The vampire yelped and kicked him hard to the stomach. Fluidly, he rolled away and stood up again.

"Do you know why?" he asked mildly, licking his claws clean.

"No, I soddin' well don't know why," Spike replied angrily as the blood coursed in rivulets down his face. "Only thing I know at the moment is I really want to rip your head off an'…"

"Calm down, vampire," the being commanded sternly. "You do not do well to enter a fight with your blood speaking instead of your brain."

"I have a name y'know," he snarled back. "An' I know that you know it. Besides, this is how I live. Blood is what I live, what I die for."

A spark of curiosity flickered in his eyes. "How do you mean?"

"Everything I do is for blood," Spike replied matter-of-factly. "The nights out hunting, with the stars as my witness. And the days spent sleeping, resting for another hunt. It's what I do."

"No," the being disagreed softly. "What other, with your blood? That is not the only reason."

"And you would know?" Spike shot back contemptuously.

He leapt forwards quicker than lightning and Spike could only throw his hands up in front of his face. He roared. The metallic claws sliced through his arms until they hit bone, but that wasn't the reason behind the stinging pain. The other hand, its left hand, had gone straight for his chest and dragged five parallel lines deep into his left side, until his unbeating, undead heart lay bloody and exposed through his ribs. Even as Spike fell to the ground in pain, the man was back in position, studying him intently again as if he were merely a specimen to be dissected.

"So do you have a heart that pumps this blood you so yearn for?" he asked softly.

Even though his body screamed in agony, Spike couldn't resist a retort. "Beatin' as much as yours will be after I'm done with you."

"Now, really," an amused smile flitted over his face. "You're bleeding to death, vampire. Do you really expect me to believe that…?"

He never finished his sentence. Without thinking, fire flashed in golden eyes, and then Spike had covered the distance between them in two quick steps, with half of his front ripped open, and savagely tore his throat out.

In shock, Spike stared at the mangled flesh in his hand, blood dripping over pale alabaster skin. He didn't realize it, but his wounds were already covering up, healing impossibly quickly as he stood transfixed.

After an eternity, when his flesh was flawless once again, he looked down at the body and tossed the throat back into the gaping hole.

"I'm sick of people underestimating me," he whispered softly, before stalking away, his leather duster appearing out of nowhere to settle snugly around his lean frame and billow in the breeze…

8 8 8

Giles was flipping through the books, a crease in his forehead as he attempted to manoeuvre the larger ones aside with one arm in search for

"That's strange," he muttered out loud. "I could have sworn I left it here…"

Frowning as he pondered, his ears picked up whispers coming from upstairs. His frown grew deeper as he slowly made his way upwards, his sling bouncing slightly against his chest as he ascended. The voices grew minutely louder, until he rapped on the door.

"Yes Giles?" Cassandra's luminous eyes stared back at him from the half-darkness of the corridor. "Do you need anything? Sorry, we didn't mean to…"

He half-smiled. "No, no, it's quite alright. It's just… there was a book that I was looking at before, and I can't seem to find it now… do you know what happened to volume 5 and 6 of 'The Facets of Evil'?"

Daniel joined Cassandra behind the door. "Sorry, Giles, we haven't seen it. We were flipping through a few books before… but that wasn't one of them."

Giles sighed somewhat exasperatedly. He remembered the conversation they had had all too well.

"Have you been looking through my books again, Cassandra?"

"What? Um… no?" she replied nervously, pushing the offending article back onto the table. "Just… uh… well…"

He frowned. "Cassandra, you are not to mess with some of these books. You know that some are highly dangerous… and you shouldn't be reading some of them and your age either."

"You know you won't be able to keep her out of them," Daniel laughed as he walked in from the kitchen, not a speck of flour on his shirt even though he'd been handling it for the past half an hour.

"Maybe a compromise?" Cassandra's eyes brightened up at the idea. "You could put all the books you don't think I should see into that cupboard and leave the rest?"

"No, I can't," Giles said testily. "You don't seem to realize the dangers of this, Cassandra, not to mention the impression some of these diagrams and books may have on you. Not for another two years at least."

She looked directly at him. "Giles, if I'm going to live here… if you're going to trust me when these 'feelings' come to me, then I need to know what I'm talking about."

He opened his mouth, then closed it, and then thought about it for a while. He hadn't properly had time to talk to her about that… there'd been too much going on. He sighed, heavily.

"I wouldn't even allow Dawn to have a look…"

"Compromise," Daniel echoed Cassandra.

He looked at them, and saw the stubbornness shining in their eyes. And sighed.

"We'll talk about this properly later."

"Sure."

"You stayed away from the ones on the bottom five shelves, didn't you?" Giles asked. "And the ones in the oak cupboard…"

"Yes, Giles," Cassandra nodded. "I did."

"Very well, then. Sorry to have bothered you."

"No problem at all," Daniel replied cheerfully. "You sure you don't need anything?"

The half-smile crept over Giles' face again. "I'm quite sure, thank-you, Daniel."

He walked away, and the arc of light the open door left vanished, leaving him in the dark until he reached the staircase.

8 8 8

"What now?" Spike yelled out at the empty nothingness. "What are you going to throw at me now?"

"Oh my sweet William… the stars are blazing bright tonight."

If his heart beat, it would have stopped for an eternity.

"Dru…?"

She came swaying out of the shadows, dancing in that hypnotic way of hers as her eyes drew him into their bloodless depths. He staggered backwards unconsciously, but a wall that hadn't been there appeared and he crashed into it, sliding down to stare upwards at her in shock.

"So fiery they are…" she sang, moving closer. "Fiery like blood. Blood that's coming… so much blood."

"Dru… what are you doing here?"

She swayed her hips as she bent down to his eye level and caressed his forehead with painted nails. Ignoring his question, she knelt down and whispered sensuously in his ear.

"The darkness is opening once more… stars and blood so bright, sweet William. Won't you come with me and taste it again?"

He felt a tingling at the base of his spine, a chill that ran through his entire body. He knew this feeling well.

"What are you talking about, Dru?" he asked urgently.

"Oh come… come with me…" she nipped his earlobe. "The sunshine won't come out every day, you know. But I'll be here forever…"

"No you won't," he couldn't help lashing out at her. "You left me, time and again you did."

She growled and nipped harder. "Naughty William," she hissed, backing away with his blood on her fangs, disappearing into the black. The last words came out of the shadows, just before her eyes were swallowed up by night.

"Won't learn. But the darkness will change that."

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