Chapter Four-
I stared wordlessly at my schoolmate and her blond companion in shocked silence for I don't know how long. But just as I began to wonder if I was going to get in trouble for witnessing something I shouldn't have (Murder? my brain supplied.), Buffy whirled on the taller man.
"Why the hell didn't you tell me whe was there?" she yelled angrily.
"Well wot was I supposed to do?" he retorted, puffing up with indignation. "Ask the chap to wait a minute so I could 'ave a nice conversation with ya?"
"You could've said something!" she shot back.
If looks could kill, I thought momentarily while I watched them with wide eyes. As they argued Tex shook his broad head and clambered to his feet. I wrapped my arms around his neck as he licked my cheek in greeting.
"Well I'm sorry if I didn't let ya know soon enough that I was tryin' ta save her soddin' life!" the Brit growled, flinging his arm in my general direction.
Buffy had no answer to his last remark, but merely chuffed a breath out in annoyance and turned once again towards me. I froze in place, wondering what she would do to me. Without thinking me gaze flickered to the spot where my attacker had vanished in a cloud of ash. Already the light breeze had blown most of it away.
"Don't worry," she said in a much gentler tone than I'd expected. I thought she'd be furious or something. "He won't hurt you again."
"What the hell was he?" I asked, my voice still laced with the shock of everything that had happened. Unconciously my arms tightened around my dog.
"A vampire," the man told me before Buffy could even open her mouth. She glared angrily at him as he crossed his arms across his well-muscled chest, and then came over to gently help me to my feet. Tex grumbled something in his own language and situated himself between me and them as soon as the older teen let go of my arm.
"But, vampires don't exist," I argued in confusion. "I mean, it's all just stories and stuff."
Buffy heaved a huge sigh and her gaze met mine. For a second I thought they must both be crazy, but I saw pure truth reflecting back from the blond teen's eyes.
"He's telling the truth," she confirmed, as if she'd read my mind.
I shook my head once and ran my fingers through my tangled honey-brown hair as they explained how vampires infested the quaint little town of Sunnydale, along with all other manner of demons and ghouls.
"So, you're a vampire slayer," I clarified when they'd finished. Buffy nodded.
"And you're a vampire." The guy who'd helped save me, Spike, nodded.
"And no one else knows besides ya'll?"
"There are a few others who know," Buffy replied. Then, as if on cue, I heard voices calling Buffy's name.
"Xander?" I gasped in shock as the dark-haired teen came prancing through the graveyard towards us like he did this every night. Which, given the information I'd just recieved, he probably did. "And Willow?"
"Oh, hey Krys!" the other girl said with a forced laugh, her gaze flickering nervously between me and Buffy and Spike, as if I'd caught her cheating on a test. "What in the world brings you out here this late?"
"Don't worry Buffy already told me everything," I sighed as I perched on the knee-high brick wall. Tex sat between my knees and settled his muzzle on my thigh with a contented grumble. Now that the danger had passed he was perfectly fine.
"E-eveything?" Willow squeaked in suprise, her mossy green eyes wide.
"She got attacked by a new vamp," Spike supplied as if the short sentence was an explanation in and of itself. Which, aparently it was. I was welcomed into the group with figuratively open arms.
"So now you're really part of the Scooby gang!" Xander chirped with a huge grin.
"The Scooby gang?" I questioned, one brow cocked in confusion.
"Yeah it's what we call ourselves!" he replied cheekily. "You know, out fighting crime and solving mysteries and saving the world one dusted vamp at a time!"
"Gotcha..." I drawled. Then I got to my feet.
"Look," I told them. "This has been an experience and all, but I gotta get home to my sister before she freaks out and calls the cops to come find me or something. I promise I won't tell anyone what happened or whatever, but..." I trailed off with a shrug before hooking Tex's leash to his collar. Of course I couldn't tell anyone, because they would think I'd gone bat-shit crazy.
"Maybe one of us should walk with you or something," Willow pointed out with a worried frown. She kind of reminded me of an overprotective momma hen. "Just in case there are more out there."
The three teens looked at each other in silence, as if waiting for someone else to offer, and finally Spike let out an annoyed sigh.
"I'll go with 'er," he grumbled before stepping over the low wall and stalking off down the street, rolling his eyes.
"Um, thanks for the offer," I called to his retreating back. "But I live the other way."
Buffy, Xander, and Willow chuckled beneath their breath as the irate vampire spun on his heel and stalked back the way he'd come, breezing past us without a word.
"See ya'll tomorrow," I said before waving farewell and trotting off after my chaperone.
"So... you're a vampire?" I ventured after several minutes of akward silence. Spike glanced down at me, because I was at least a foot shorter than him, and then replied,
"Yah, I'm a vampire."
"Then how come you're helping Buffy and the others kill vampires?" I continued. "Are you like, a good guy or whatever?"
He grumbled something under his breath that I couldn't make out (probably a curse.), and then unconciously rubbed a spot on the back of his skull.
"I got a soddin' chip in my head," he finally said, his whole frame seething with annoyance and a dark frown on his pale face. "I can't hurt anythin' without gettin' a blazin' pain through my skull." To emphazise his point he stabbed his temple with one slender finger on each of the last few words.
"So you're an unwilling good guy," I gathered, feeling a little sorry for him despite a slight unease in my gut. He was a blood-sucking, sun-hating vampire, after all.
He shrugged and made a slight affirmative noise in the back of his throat as we turned onto my street, and I cursed loudly when I caught sight of Skylar streaking towards us, her cheeks flushed cherry red and wet with tears.
"Sissy!" she cried, launching herself into my midriff. I huffed at the impact as Tex wiggled around our legs, tangling us up even further. Spike's brow shot up as I stroked my sibling's messy mop of light brown hair and patted her shaking shoulders comfortingly.
"Told ya she'd freak out," I said simply. Then I pulled away gently to brush the tears from her face.
"You should be inside,"I told her sternly, slipping the loop of Tex's leash onto my wrist so I could sign as I spoke aloud.
"But you never came home and you didn't answer your phone and I got worried 'cause I thought maybe you'd gotten hurt or something and I-"
"I'm fine," I soothed her, cutting off her frantic tirade before steering her towards the house. Spike followed closely at my heels.
"Wot's with all the fancy hand wavin' and whatnot?" he hissed in my ear.
"She's deaf," I replied in a normal tone as Skylar scampered up the front steps and into the house with Tex hot on her trail. The two then raced up the stairs and into the room we shared as I hung the dog's leash back in its place in the closet. I noticed Spike had frozen just outside the door, muttering a string of Brittish and American curses.
"What's the matter?" I asked, my head tilted with confusion.
He heaved a huge sigh that sounded more like a growl. "Can't come in 'less you invite me," he grumped.
"Oh well come on in," I replied with a slight smile, heading into the kitchen as he stepped inside and shut the front door behind him. "You want anything to drink?"
A millisecond later I realized my mistake.
My spine stiffened and my muscles tensed taught as piano wire as Spike sauntered into the kitchen after me like he owned the place, and yet at my shell-shocked expression he merely chuckled darkly and settled into one of the bar stools, hooking the heels of his combat boots in the lowest rung.
"Chip, remember?" he said placatingly, holding up one of his hands palm-out in a gesture of peace. "I ain't gonna hurt you."
I released a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding and relaxed against the counter behind me.
"But about that drink," he continued. "Whaddya got?"
I straightened and turned to the fridge.
"Um... we have sweet tea, Kool-Aid, milk, water, Coke, Sprite..."
"No liquor?" he probed.
I grabbed a Sprite and shut the fridge with a sigh, my eyes inexorably drawn to the spot through the walls where I knew my father would be sprawled on his bed, so drunk he wouldn't've even stirred if you marched the whole school band right in front of his nose. Of course, that would be after he got back from partying it up with his online girlfriend.
"Anything harder than Coke is in there," I told him, pointing across the kitchen before popping the top of my soda.
He paused momentarily at my dark tone, then rose gracefully to his feet to rummage around in the cabinet I'd indicated. He came away with a bottle of Jack Daniels.
"I take it you 'ave a bit of an aversion to this stuff?" he ventured as I set a glass on the island for him.
"My dad's an alcoholic," I said in answer, frowning at the top of my own drink. I couldn't bring myself to meet his gaze. I'd always blamed myself for my father's addiction, even though logically I knew it wasn't really my fault.
Spike was silent as he sipped from the glass, and then he set it down with a soft clink.
"What happened?" he inquired simply. Part of me wanted to ask just what he was talking about, but deep down I knew what he meant. So I spilled, words flowing forth like water from a broken dam as I gave him a complete rundown of the last few years.
"It's always been hard on my dad, having a deaf child," I told him. "He was never really father material in the first place, but when Skylar was born it started going downhill. If our mom was around he could deal with it, but after she died in a car accident he just lost it. Starting drinking real heavy, stopped taking care of himself, and stopped taking care of us. I'd been working at our neighbor's farm to save money so me and Sky could go to college, but someone had to put food on the table and pay the bills.
"Then the money I'd saved ran out, and when I couldn't find another job we started getting the eviction warnings. After a while I found out my dad had been going to this online dating service, and one night he told us that he'd met a girl and we were going to move out here so he could be with her. She'd even bought us this house to live in. He told us he loved her, and no matter what I said he refused to budge, so we packed everything up and left."
I finally met his gaze as I finished speaking, and I saw pity reflected in the dark irises.
"Where's this girl now?" he inquired.
"Dunno," I answered. "Dad keeps telling us about how he goes out and parties with her, but I haven't met her or talked to her yet."
"And wot about the little one?" he probed. "How's she handlin' all this?" As he said the last words he gestured around the bright little kitchen to indicate what he was talking about.
I shrugged. "Sky's real tough. I know she misses her friends back home, and I do too, but she's dealing. We both are."
We sat in silence for a few moments as I tried to reason with myself just why I'd spilled my guts to this absolute stranger, who was sitting in our kitchen drinking my dad's liquor like he lived here, when Skylar came trotting down the stairs with Tex at her heels.
-I'm hungry,- she signed wordlessly when our gazes met. -Is there any pizza left?-
"Dunno," I replied, speaking aloud so Spike could hear at least my half of the conversation. I knew people felt akward sometimes when they couldn't understand what was being said right in front of their noses. "Check in the fridge."
She turned and dug around for a moment before backing out with a wide slice of meat lover's supreme dangling from her mouth. I rolled my eyes at her complete lack of manners and sighed heavily, running my fingers through my hair.
-So is he your boyfriend or something now?- she asked, all childish innocence and relentless curiosity. I sputtered and choked on my soda, causing Spike to jump and stare at me in surprise.
"Wot did she say?" he asked incredulously. But I only had eyes for my sibling at the moment.
-He is NOT my boyfriend!- I signed indignantly, aghast that she would even suggest such a thing. I'd just met the guy! I barely even knew him!
Yet I'd just basically told him my life's story, a little voice whispered in the back of my mind. I shoved it away roughly.
But all of my huffing and denial just set her to giggling, and she skipped out of the kitchen with a huge, goofy grin plastered on her face as Tex trotted along after her. I grumped something unintelligble about kids and their nosy habits.
"Why do I get tha feelin' I just missed somethin' big?" the blond in question pointed out as I mopped up the Sprite I'd knocked over on the counter, one brow cocked high.
"Don't worry about it," I tried to play it off, shrugging nonchalantly as I tossed the soaking dishrag into the sink and threw the now-empty can in the trash. He shook his head slightly at my casual attitude, and I knew that he knew I wasn't telling him the truth, but my face flushed red hot at the thought of telling him what my little sister had just said.
"Well, thanks for the Jack," Spike said a minute later, rising to his feet. "But I think I'd better be gettin' back to the others now."
"Alright," I replied, following him as he headed for the door. He stepped outside into the sultry night air, and then turned to face me. "Thanks for everything," I continued, my gaze dropping to his feet. Why was I suddenly so embarassed around him?
He reached out to ruffle my hair, like one would do to a child. "No problem pet," he said before giving me a cocky grin and turning to saunter off down the street, his duster off and tucked into the crook of his elbow as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his black jeans.
I tried not to, I really did... But as he walked away I couldn't help but check out his amazingly cute backside.