Demons and Dreams
"Heads up!" Buffy shouted as she threw a knife in the direction of her lover.
"Cheers, luv," he said, catching the weapon easily and dispatching an unidentified demon by removing its head. "How about next time you give me more notice? Coulda sliced off an ear."
"Yeah right, instinct boy," the Slayer replied, while delivering kicks to two vampires who had tackled her at once. "You sensed it before it even left my hand. And my aim is excellent."
"That so?" Spike joked, as he watched his mate miss the heart of one of the vampires by mere millimeters. "Look off your game to me."
The Master vampire had sat down on a tombstone and was in the middle of lighting a cigarette when Buffy went in on her would be attacker a second time and hit home. She pushed the other one into Spike and knocked him flying.
"Sorry sweetie," she said, with a wide smile.
"Damn chit can't take a joke," he grumbled, also with a smile, as he got to his feet and ripped the head clean off the second vamp.
"Shut up," said Buffy, before kissing him and pushing him to the ground again.
Sex in a cemetery was not something a younger Buffy thought she would have enjoyed, but it turned out to be one of her favorite outdoor places to do it. Especially when the moon was high, and the stars were out.
Afterwards, while they lay under those stars, they talked about the week ahead.
"Thursday's seeing mom, right? And Friday's Giles. Or was Giles Saturday?"
"I thought we were seeing the watcher on Thursday and your mum on Sunday?"
"Wait, what day is it now?"
Spike looked at the moon and paused momentarily, before deciding it was past midnight. "Tuesday," he said. "I think."
"Ugh!" the Slayer groaned. "It all bleeds together. The upside to school was having a real schedule."
"Oh, I don't know, bleeding together sounds like a fun activity," Spike joked.
"You're gross," Buffy told him.
"Yeah, an' you love it."
"Love you," she corrected, "Not your grossness."
"Same thing."
"Whatever. Just remind me to call my mom tomorrow, to confirm when we're due."
"Will do. Jus' remember, tomorrow's our day."
Buffy laughed, thinking about how they'd spent every single day of the summer so far together. "There are days that aren't ours?"
"'course not. But tomorrow we have specific plans."
"Other than patrolling and sex?"
"Yeah, pet. Though 'm sure those'll also feature," Spike grinned, while Buffy frowned, trying to rack her brains.
"Knife throwing?"
"Nope."
"Food shopping?"
"Nah."
"Broadsword practice?"
"Guess again."
"Umm… Oh! Clothes shopping?"
Spike chuckled, "Nice try."
With a sigh the Slayer gave up, and he told her they were going to work on her Slayer senses more.
"That's the blindfold stuff, right?"
He nodded.
"Cool," she smiled, "I like the blindfold."
"We do have to complete the exercises before getting sidetracked this time, luv."
"Spoilsport," Buffy accused, prodding him with a finger before standing up and brushing grass off her back.
"Hey, I did say the sex would happen. Jus' at the end."
"Scheduling sex, are we that jaded?"
"Hardly!" Spike barked out a laugh, rising to his feet, content at having watched Buffy redress herself.
"Gotta say," said the Slayer, as she appreciated her mate's backside, "Training with you is a lot more fun than it ever was with Giles."
"Better bloody be," Spike replied. "If he was using the same tactics as me I'd be worried."
"Eww."
"Yeah. Best keep our procedures between ourselves."
"Definitely," Buffy agreed, taking his hand to begin the walk back to his apartment.
The couple had sex twice more, there, before falling asleep. And, once asleep, it started…
Spike only just managed to dodge a right hook from the strange looking being in his dreamscape. Instinctively he knew the thing trying to beat him down was a Slayer, with more than a hint of the dark side, and also ancient. As they fought he became aware the dreamscape was mirrored, and that – on the opposite side of a see-through barrier – Buffy was sat staring into a fire that had sprung up out of nowhere, while a carbon copy of the Slayer he was fighting moved around her and spoke words he couldn't hear.
He could feel his mate through the link, but it was as if it was muffled by the barrier between them, and he couldn't pick up her thoughts. Obviously rapt in whatever the other Slayer was telling her, Buffy didn't look his direction once, which brassed him off.
"Look here," he said, finally bored with ducking punches and beginning to deliver some of his own, "We're not interested in whatever game you're trying to play."
"We should not exist," the Slayer replied cryptically.
"Right," he said, rolling his eyes. "Whatever the hell that means."
"Vampire and Slayer should not be joined. The Slayer line has been corrupted. Blood polluted"
"Bullshit," Spike countered, in what he considered to be an excellent line of argument.
"Look," the Slayer said, stopping the battle suddenly and turning to view Buffy through the barrier. "She is love. Full of love. You are death. A scourge to our kind. Worse than the other vampires."
"Oi! 'm not worse!"
"You have killed two Slayers. Sought the deaths of three more. Sought out our line specifically. More than any other fanged beast."
"Oh. Well, yeah," Spike ran a hand through his hair and looked at his feet.
"We are offering her the chance to break your bond," she continued, and suddenly he looked up again. Horrified, angry, and scared.
"She wouldn't," he said, with more confidence than he felt.
"Even for the sake of her destiny?"
"What makes you think being with me will make her give that up?"
The Slayer shook her head and told him, "You take it from her."
"No!" said Spike, forcefully.
"So you reject the claim?"
"What?! No!"
"So you take her destiny."
"Bloody hell!" Spike exclaimed, at his wits end. "This is an either or? Break the claim or take her destiny?"
The Slayer nodded, and he was silent. Next thing he knew Buffy was shaking him awake.
To be continued...