Disclaimer: Still don't own Joss Whedon's characters…..
a/n Hey guys, I'm back… I have to apologize for the massive delay… I never wanted to be that annoying writer that stopped writing halfway through the story… so I'm giving it another shot… here's the next chapter… enjoy!
Previously:
'You want to drain me.' She continued murmuring, backing up another step, her small frame seeming even smaller against the black wall that she was inches from banging into.
Unless she had a very strange view on how people killed other people, she knew more about my world than I could tell from first glance at the small slip of a girl.
I felt panic go through me stronger than ever as his thoughts penetrated my mind. It was softer then before though, whispering into my mind. "Can you hear me love? For your sake I hope you can. Before we go any further, my name's Spike. If you can't hear me love, I'm going to drain you dry, but don't worry it'll be quick. If you can though, pet, I'll give you a chance to live. Choose."
With his lips not moving from their spot, I knew that I wouldn't live seconds if I refused him. Swallowing, feeling his lips move as I did, I nodded before speaking hoarsely, "what do you want".
Dragging her out of the alley into the dark night, I asked gruffly, "What's your name anyway, pet?"
After a quick, surprised pause, she replied softly, "Buffy."
BPOV
I felt his fingers press harshly into the flesh above my elbow; hard enough to produce bruises to decorate my skin. I felt like I'd be pushing my luck if I spoke now, when he'd been on the brink of knocking me unconscious minutes before, but in my defence, fear makes my head go all jumbly.
'You never told me what in the world you want.' It was meant to come out a heated, maybe a little cold but instead it came out as a whisper and even I could hear the fear in my voice. I mentally cursed myself as I felt the smug edge to his thoughts.
'Maybe, pet, that's because I haven't decided yet.' His words were light enough, but I could feel the dark edge to his thoughts. I felt panic start to set in again but knew better than to delve any further. I didn't need to know all the sick thoughts going through his head. Despite everything, I wasn't tough enough.
Very few people looked at us. Not that I was trying to draw any attention. I didn't want to be out cold and I knew no-one could help anyway- I was only going to get them killed. Still, I'm pretty sure I looked scared shitless and I was being hauled away from a pretty scary looking guy.
Pretty soon, much sooner than I would have liked, he was hauling us into a creepy looking crypt in a cemetery. If I wasn't so scared, I would have rolled my eyes at the cliché of it all. He'd been relatively gentle the whole trip, in least physically. Mentally, I'd tried my best to block out the bombardment of images of my death that had flooded my skull. I knew that was his leash to stop me from running while people milled around us. He kept me too terrified to try.
Shoving me ahead, through the open crypt door and deeper into the room, I stumbled before catching myself to glare at him. I might be his prisoner, for now, but he was just doing that to show me 'who's the boss'. As if it wasn't obvious enough.
However, I felt my glare waver as he stalked towards me. Involuntarily, I took a step back for each one he took forward. Realistically, I knew that I couldn't run away from him. I knew he was provoking me and if he had wanted to kill me, he would have already. But the logic area of my brain was shutting down as panic took over. All I could see and feel was my death playing in front of my eyes as I looked into his.
When I felt the hard, cold sense of rock hit my back, I felt the panic take me over completely. It was so hard to try to be brave when I could see every repugnant idea that crossed his mind. Throwing in all my courage, I continued to meet his gaze as he moved so close to me that the hard edges of his body were pressing me into the wall.
It became harder when he didn't look away, didn't say anything. He was surprising adept at keeping me out, mostly. He just kept flooding my mind with sights of death and I couldn't make myself probe further. After a few agonising moments, his face changed in front of my eyes. I'd seen it before, but that didn't stop the tactic from shocking me a little. I wasn't used to being blindsided.
However, from the annoyance on his face, which echoed in his mind, I'd say I didn't react as he hoped. Feeling a little braver after that, I didn't back down. I was feeling the panic start to recede. All I had to do was wait for a chance. My one advantage is that he underestimated me. I'd been through this before, albeit not with a vampire, I'd get through it again.
Despite my best efforts, I felt myself flinch when he ran the back of his hand across my racing pulse in my neck. Opening my mind a little to his, pushing my way past his barriers, I found what he was thinking. By reflex, my head cracked painfully against the crypt wall as I caught his strand of thought.
His lips curled up into a slight smile. 'That's right pet. Maybe I'll do it now.' Before I could even think further into what he said, I started shaking my head. 'no, no, no, no.' In his mind, I could see him biting into my neck, draining me of almost every drop before cutting his chest and pressing me against the blood trickling down his chest.
Despite the horror in my mind, I could feel something other than fear tingling through my body.
'No,' I whispered again, both to my thoughts and his. 'I don't want to be like you. It won't work that way anyway,' I lied quickly. There was no way in hell I was going to let him turn me if I could help it. His expression turned from amused to thoughtful. 'Is that so pet. I wonder why that is.' His voice was heavy with scepticism. I felt my heart thud faster, but I refused to give him every reason to turn me.
He stared at me for a few seconds longer before lowering his gaze to my pulsing neck. I swallowed and I felt my body start to tremble lightly despite my stern commands to it to do nothing of the sort.
I could have sworn he was going to bite me. It didn't help my case that he was hungry. Luckily, my words had planted a tiny seed of doubt in his mind. And he wasn't willing to risk losing my gift by turning me. Hearing that thought reverberate through his mind over his thoughts of killing I couldn't help but shudder in relief, lowering my head finally. My adrenaline rush had left me, leaving me tired and shaking.
Spike sighed when he noticed my obvious relief. 'You know, pet, this whole thing makes it both a lot easier and a lot harder to scare you.' I couldn't help but chuckle darkly at that. 'I think we both know you're doing a fine job.' My voice came through almost normally, though a little breathily and I could have cheered at the small success.
His lips curled slightly again. 'Alright pet, here's your test. Fail, and I'll turn you because you obviously aren't powerful enough human anyway. Pass, and I won't kill you as long as you agree to work for me. Got it pet?' I nodded, strangely for once not scared. I knew the extent of my abilities, cursed it often enough. I knew I could do this.
He tilted his head to the side when he couldn't smell my fear and backed off a step to give me some room. 'I want you to scan the graveyard, love, and tell me how many creepy critters of the night there are.'
That was a tall order, because it meant I had to search for every mind and see if they were not human. As much as it went against every instinct, I closed my eyes as I searched for that life. Carefully, I went through every inch of the graveyard, mentally tallying at the same time. Assured that I had counted every being in the graveyard, I opened my eyes to look at Spike. His bright blue eyes were staring down at me. Taking a deep breath, I sealed my deal with evil. '13 'creepy critters', 2 humans and,' I paused for a second, unsure of how to describe the mind of the last being. 'She felt human, but there was something a little off. Her mind was full of the death of vampires and demons and she was practically oozing power.'
Spike's eyes lit up as I described the last individual. Flashing a big smile, he hauled me back towards to door. 'Where is she, love.' I hesitated for a moment, not wanting to cause the girl's death. Because there was no doubt in Spike's mind that she would die. But he wasn't planning on killing her tonight. Letting out a deep breath, I pointed and said 'that way.' Before I even finished talking, he was pulling me in that direction.
As we got closer to the girl, Spike's nose caught her scent and he suddenly stopped moving and turned to me. 'The girl you sense now will kill you for helping me. Never, ever go near her. Got that pet?' I felt a shiver go through me as I felt his belief in the words he uttered.
It seemed that no matter where I turned now, someone would kill me for existing. Just when I thought I had escaped that. At least with Spike I had a shot at life.
His grip tightened again as he started tugging me back in the direction we came from until we got to the crypt. I was going to have a bad bruise by tomorrow morning.
I knew it couldn't be long until dawn now. My body was heavy with lethargy. Too much had happened and I yearned to just sleep. When he finally let go of my arm, my hand automatically went up to rub the abused limb.
When I touched Spike's mind, I felt his hunger beating at me and I knew my night wasn't over yet. With that realization, I just closed my eyes, not caring. If he drank from me, I'd probably just sleep deeper anyway. I felt him move closer to me and I opened my eyes. Despite everything, I couldn't give up yet.
Hoping that it would work, I quickly darted my eyes over his shoulder, deeper inside the crypt, widening them as if I saw something. It wasn't hard to fake fear; I had enough welling up inside me. Instinctually, Spike turned to face whatever demon was hiding in the shadows of the crypt. As soon as he turned, I bolted for the crypt door. I'd almost made it to the door when I felt him grab me and pull me back towards him.
I felt his anger rippling through his thoughts and saw him raise his hand, ready to strike. I couldn't stop myself from freezing when I saw it, couldn't stop staring. I felt a tear travel down my cheek and I couldn't even make myself wipe it away.
To my surprise he lowered his fist slowly. He used it to gently tilt my neck to the side. I let my gaze flick back over to his eyes. Hunger was again the primary emotion in his mind, his anger fading away. Slowly he lowered his head, not breaking eye contact until his lips were nearly touching my neck. As his lips sealed over my neck, I heard him in my mind whispering, 'it's not gonna hurt love.'
I felt him suck on my pulse, bringing the blood to the surface. My emotions were churning inside of me until I wasn't sure what I was feeling any more. But for the second time I couldn't ignore that it wasn't only fear. Suddenly, I was brought back to what was happening by the sharp sting on my neck. I felt my eyes water but to my surprise it didn't hurt when he started drinking. With each pull of blood, I felt lighter. Eventually I felt my body sag against him just as he pulled out of my neck.
I felt my legs waver under me and my eyes flutter. Before I knew what was happening, Spike was carrying me down a ladder with one hand. We got to the bottom of the ladder and Spike turned us around to see the room.
As soon as I saw the bed, I freaked out. In my exhausted state, I totally ignored Spike's mind and immediately came to my own conclusions. I thrashed in his arms until I fell out. I saw Spike's surprised face as I backed away from him. Spike's eyes flicked to the bed and then back to me, widening with comprehension.
I couldn't even understand what was happening; I could barely understand where I was. All I could see was that same threat which had haunted me for years. Suddenly, I could see Spike crouched in front of me and I realized I was sitting in the corner. After a few moments, I realized he was talking to me. 'Come on love you can read my bloody mind. I'm never going to do something like that to you. It's not gonna happen pet. I need you to calm down.'
Finally realizing where I was, I looked at him and skimmed his mind. I saw his intentions and felt my muscles relax. It wasn't exactly ideal, but it was far from what I feared. Seeing it in his mind calmed me and I offered my wrist as I knew what he was going to do next.
Gently, he grasped it and pulled me up. He led me over to the bed and sat me on it. I couldn't even make myself resist him. I knew there was no point anyway. This was not the time to be trying to escape; it wasn't my chance. He reached behind me and a few seconds later I felt something cold close over my wrist. Looking down, I saw the cuff. I felt fear seep into my chest at the sight but I forced it down.
He looked down at me for a moment, before a smile crept onto his face. 'I forgot to mention that you tasted delicious. You really are a prize love. That's the sort of thing that will keep you alive.'
I stared at him for a moment and watched him as he walked back over to the ladder and climbed it again. Unable to fight my body any longer, I fell into an exhausted sleep.