Catching up: "You have got to destroy her Buffy! She must have the demon; if she doesn't have him then she cannot go through with her plan." William shouted. Wincing at the pain from her cut wrists, she pressed the bleeding flesh to Spike's lips and let the blood flow into his mouth. He didn't respond in the slightest. Hoping that her slayer blood would give him strength, she waited until her head began to spin to stop the bleeding. Wrapping an old shirt around it, she went back to stroking his hair. Though this time, there was no pressing into her hand. He just lay still. "I love you," She whispered, a tear leaking down her face. "Don't leave me."

A/N: Hey all! Sorry about the non-posting that I've been doing. I promise that as soon as I'm finished with exams I'll be right back to my near daily chapters! Hoping you're all still liking my fanfiction!

Vanish.

The night went by with a lot of people checking in, seeing how Spike was doing, seeing how Buffy was doing, asking if anything was needed – if they could do anything. Spike's eyes had eventually drifted closed, and the only thing that kept Buffy from losing her mind was the little voice at the back of her mind saying "vampires dust when they die". She didn't sleep at all, and she wasn't really sure if Spike had either. Whether he was asleep, or awake, or in a coma – could a vampire go into a coma? – was unclear to her. Unclear to anyone really. Though Angel reassured her time and time again that Spike was very alive, she still had her doubts. As long as her bed remained non-dusty, she would be alright. Spike would live. Of course he would.

The fading cuts in her skin felt like they were burning from some sort of stinging venom. She noticed they had turned a similar purple to that of Spike's veins. This worried her friends immeasurably, but she insisted that they tend to Spike before her.

Downstairs, Giles and Willow were feverishly searching through heavy leather bound volumes, trying to find anything in the watcher journals and old texts about such succubus. They thought perhaps, if Dawn hadn't been hovering over Buffy and Spike on the upper floor, that she'd have been great help to them. Tara and Xander had taken Faith into a hospital to get checked out, so they wouldn't be much help. Faith's eyes were still dilated to breaking point and all signs of a serious concussion strained the group's nerves further. Anya though, had disappeared into a portal to ask around to her old demon friends if they'd heard of the succubus. Though they didn't have a name for her, they weren't she how much help she would be either.

"Giles look at this," Willow pointed to a paragraph excitedly. She thought maybe that they had their first lead. "It sais here that there was a clan of succubi about six hundred years ago that wreaked havoc in a small town in Scotland. Apparently they fed off of only the most human part of souls." She looked at the page for a moment thinking. "Oh! So that's what she was doing! She's feeding off of Spikes soul! Well now that can't be good." She muttered the latter.

"So then," Giles was looking over Willow's shoulder to contemplate the old drawing of the clan. "That means that she doesn't need Spike's demon." He looked up and took off his glasses. "Good god, that could mean she already has what she wants."

"Uh oh?" Willow bit her lip nervously and went to the phone. "I'll call the others back. Don't worry Giles, we can stop this thing. I just need a few things from the shop."

"I'm afraid it's not that simple." His voice was tight, morose as if this were truly the end. "If she has what she was looking for, we could very well be too late." He returned his glasses to their rightful place, and made his way to the stairs to update Buffy.

"But, we don't know what she wants, I mean, maybe she just needed a little snack and she'll go back to her little clan and party in a bar in another dimension." Willow said with false hopefulness.

"Yes perhaps," He replied quietly and slowly ascended the stairs. "Buffy?" Giles knocked on her bedroom door, which was all the way open.

"Hey Giles," she pulled herself into a sitting position, and waited for him to come over to her. "What's up?"

After taking a seat beside her, he began his nervous tale. "I'm afraid I have some bad news."

Everything was dark, so dark. Spike couldn't see anything. Perhaps it was because his eyes were closed? He tried to open them. No, still so dark. He tried to feel around him, but couldn't move his fingers more than an inch. She thing beneath him felt cold, or maybe it was he that was cold? He couldn't tell. He heard his heart pulsing in his ears. But he hadn't a heart. So how could he..

"What is he doing?" Giles took a break from his description to nod over at Spike.

"He keeps doing that." She sighed. "I don't know why." She took his hand in hers and stroked his icy fingers. His fingers didn't stop their search though; they kept stretching and retreating, tapping against the back of her hand and beginning again. "Can't Willow bring his humanity back? I mean, if it's gone."

"I'm afraid not Buffy, if she has that of his humanity that she needed, she's probably already made use of it. And if that's the case…" He made a "well" sort of motion with his mouth and eye brows, cocking his head slightly to the side.

"Oh, well, he'll be okay then right? He didn't have much humanity before, he can do it now." She said hopefully.

"Buffy, if he's lost what humanity he regained when he got the chip, I don't think he'll be the Spike we all love." He had to force that last bit out of his mouth, but Buffy appreciated the small favor anyways. After all, he deserved it. He'd given his life for them all.

"I'm not going to give up on him Giles," she shook her head. "I can't."

A/N: Ok so, apocalypse may be nearing? Hmm, we'll find out! Again, hope you're still enjoying this, keep reading yeah? And I'll keep posting!