"Angel. He was the most vicious creature I ever met... I miss him."

―The Master

Chapter 23

He couldn't do it.

Spike couldn't move, it would take time for his back to heal and the voices of his victims was screaming devastation to his mind. Angelus had, of course, devised a nice poetic plan. One that Spike knew would end him. He'd brought down, one-by-one, humans already drained and on the brink of death. To be turned.

Normally a turning was uncomfortable, all the blood taken being returned tainted. Humans believed that it was necessary for the blood that was returned to belong to the human that had been drained but this wasn't the case. Any vampire could turn any human so long as they were close enough to death from blood loss, and if the vamp in question was willing to suffer a ridiculous amount of pain. Not that Angelus had given him much of a choice: Turn them or watch him drain Buffy. He wouldn't kill her, oh no, but he might just decide to turn her right in front of him despite Drus warnings.

This might not have been such a horrible problem if it weren't for the fact that he was already struggling to hold on to his sanity, and if Angelus hadn't pinned Buffys body under his own, lips tracing her throat, as he woke her. She woke up bucking, her body twisting and convulsing as she tried to shove Angelus off of her which only made the depraved vampire laugh and laugh. He watched her eyes search for a weapon until they landed on him and stilled. He didn't dare name the emotions he saw swimming in those orbs, didn't dare open his mouth to speak, couldn't make himself look at her any longer. Turning his head away he hoped to whatever Powers that Be that she wouldn't say anything, he might be able to do this if he didn't have to hear her voice.

"Tsk tsk tsk Spikey Boy, you don't want her to miss the show do you?" He did something that made Buffy cry out softly and Spikes head whipped back around. Bastard had his fangs in her throat. Spike jerked up wildly but succeeded only in gaining a few precious inches. Dru moved towards Buffy, pushing Angelus off effortlessly with one hand as she restrained the wriggling Buffy with the other. Angelus, much too happy about Spikes reaction, didn't bother to reprimand Drusilla, there was no point. Instead Spike was forced to watch as Angelus crossed the room and grabbed one of the 'victims', a normal-looking bloke with glasses and still gripping a book as if it was a lifeline. Spike tried to concentrate, tried to find a way out of the situation but he couldn't think, his head was too full of screaming.

He felt Angelus grab his chin and force it on to the mans neck. Spike closed his eyes, tried to fight the simultaneous need to feed with his revulsion of what he wanted to do. If he didn't do this they would kill Buffy now, or turn her. She was weak, probably suffering from whatever blow Angelus had given her to get her down here. No way the Slayer was stupid enough to follow Angel again, not with knowing he was Angelus. She needed time to heal if she was going to be able to break free and he was useless! If he took a bit of blood from each victim he'd at least remain conscious but he'd still be useless so he needed to find a way to let the others know where she was. Which came back to him having to do what Angelus wanted him to do.

The voices of all his victims roared louder in his mind. I'm already damned...Just got to get her out of here. He opened his eyes, found hers and tried to somehow tell her that he didn't want to do this but it was the only way she'd have a chance at killing the Ponce. He saw something flash behind those, suddenly bright, green eyes and watch as her head dipped into the softest of nods. He locked his teeth against the mans throat and began to drink.

If it hadn't been for the severity of his injuries Spike was sure he would've puked it all back up again. The voices in his mind HOWLED even as the man was ripped from Spikes mouth only to have his face shoved forcefully into Spikes neck. He felt the teeth sink in, felt the blood flow and screamed in agony both from the pain to his body and to his newly found soul.

Dalton came awake to the sound of anguish. The blond man, the one who the monster had shoved him against was screaming and had been screaming non-stop for hours, if the copious amount of blood spraying from his mouth was any indication. He turned his head cautiously, watched as three others stirred beside him and turned away only to come face-to-face with a blonde teenager. Suddenly he heard a thumping over the blond mans cries, a steady rhythm that seemed to emanate from the girl and made his throat burn with thirst. He felt the bones in his face shift as her smell, wild roses in a thunderstorm, wafted around him. He felt his body tense, his eyes devouring her; She was young, maybe sixteen or seventeen, and her skin was tanned but pale. Tears rolled down her cheeks but her eyes were steady, watching the blond man scream. She loves him the thought came unbidden and he struggled with himself, felt something hard pressing into his stomach. His book, a first edition signed copy of The Book of Urizen.

Laws of peace, of love, of unity; Of pity, compassion, each chuse one habitation:His ancient infinite mansion:One command, one joy, one desire,One curse, one weight, one measure One King, one God, one Law. The words came back to him, words he had read mere moments before he'd been thrust into this Hell.

"Peace, love, unity." The words came strangled from his mouth, "Pity, compassion, forgiveness." He felt the bones shift back, felt his eyes wander back to the girl and was shocked to find the girls eyes on him. The tears still ran down her cheeks and her voice was a soft whisper but there was strength in the voice and hope that somehow he could save them.

"Find Jesse, tell him how to get here. Tell him what's happening." Part of him wanted to rebel, part of him wanted nothing more than to sample the blood that was thumping through her body and was so loud to his ears.

"Please Dalton." His name, she knew his name. He tried to look back on his memories, tried to fit her in somewhere, but he'd never met this girl. So how, then, did she know his name? He wanted to ask her but her eyes were once again locked on the blonde man who had, finally, stopped screaming. Dalton turned his head and watched as the monster released the man and his body fell against the harsh stone floor. The monster reached down and grabbed the man like he was a rag doll, shaking him back into conciousness.

"Tell them Spike."

What followed was a jumble of words that sounded, suspiciously, like and insult.

"Tell them Spike or i'll let them have her as their first meal."

Dalton looked back at the girl, saw that she didn't seem the least bit afraid even as the word meal had something pushing savagely inside him. The words were enough, though, to make the blond man blink. Dalton recognized the struggle to speak and it made him sick to hear the mans voice, it was like dust; thin and strangled, barely more than a whisper and dryer than a desert.

"Find her friends, lo-lovedones." Blood seeped out of the mans mouth and his body shook with uncontrollable coughs, "Bring ba-ack heeeree" The words were slurred but utterly compelling, "so-o so-rrr-" The monster flung the man backwards and he hit the wall with a thunderous crash. He felt more than saw the girl twitch forward and was shock to find his hand slide back and squeeze hers in warning not to move. The others were awake but they weren't quite aware of what was going on. The monster was pulling them up one by one and ushering them out with knick knacks like they were hounds after a scent. Dalton released her hand, felt something in his but didn't dare look down at whatever she had managed to slip to him.

He didn't struggle when the monster, the mountain of a man that had attacked him, pulled him up but he managed to get one last look at the girl on the ground and offered a small nod. He hoped she saw it. The monster shoved a jacket into his hands and pushed him out. Dalton looked down at his book and then at his surroundings. With shaky hands he opened the book, once so pristine and now tattered, and used his teeth to prick his finger. As he walked he made a map, if he was lucky maybe he could do what the girl had asked of him.

"Come play with me Daddy." Drus voice rose in the silence like a soft breeze. She needed Angelus out of the room if she was to allow the Slayer a chance to help Spike. She wasn't relishing the idea of leaving the girl with her Spike, the knowledge that he was going to love her no matter what Dru, herself, did made her see spots of rage but her need for vengeance against Angelus was stronger. Angelus who had torn everything from her. Angelus who had hunted her, defiled her, warped her mind until she went hurling down into an abyss to escape his tender mercies. Angelus who had turned her into a demon when her sisters had assured her she was nothing but a saint.

There would be time, later, to take Spike back but for now she'd have to act on the insanity that had so pleased Angelus over the long years. She'd never dreamed it would be so difficult to act crazy but it was. Thankfully Angelus always found himself intoxicated by agony and Spike had provided a delicious amount of agony. Angelus would pay for that too. Spike was hers and had been from the moment she had seen him, a stroke of luck the stars hadn't seen. It would be simpler if she could see what would happen if she changed things but she couldn't, she could only see the things she needed to stop.

If she had allowed Angelus to kill or turn the Slayer then he'd be better protected than any other vampire on the planet. The Slayer would be a vampire like no other, her cruelty and savagery a perfect match to Angels need for torment. The demon would leave nothing of what was once Buffy Summers, all that would be left was a Slayer Vampire bound in eternity with Angelus and if she came for him the Slayer would stop her. So she'd lied and bought a little more time. Enough, perhaps, to allow the Slayer to destroy Angelus for her. Then she could take Spike away from here and kill the Slayer herself later on.

She traced one finger down her Sires shoulder, pushing back his shirt, leaned down and clamped her teeth into his neck. Angelus rose up instantly, ripping her fangs out of his neck and lifting her up to pull her legs, obligingly, around his waist. She could feel him, hard and heavy, against the apex of her thighs. She chuckled and captured his lips with her, worried at his lower lip until he allowed entrance and tightened her body against him. This would be one thing she would miss, Angelus was a lover of rare quality; brutal, punishing but intoxicating. She balanced a hand against his back and let her nails rip through clothes and skin alike, drawing a hiss intermingling pain and desire. She watched him raise his head, saw his eyes move past a unconscious Spike to the Slayer.

"The Sun fell down and all the kings horses and all the kings men couldn't make the birdy sing." It would have been easier if she'd been more...Manic in her insanity. The sing-song verses of confusion and scattered logic were a thing of infuriating beauty and swallowing up her patience. She'd shattered the Slayers leg. It would heal, eventually, but she wouldn't be going anywhere soon. Of course she'd waited until after she'd given her message to the first young one, he wouldn't survive long. She'd clamped the Slayers mouth closed but it still brought a distinct amount of pleasure to know she'd caused her pain. Angelus had, thankfully, noticed it and they were moving upwards. Dru gladly clamped her teeth on his throat again, sucked hard and long as her hands moved between them to unfasten his pants. Two steps upwards and he was inside her, three steps after that and pain and desire made the stars blink out of existence.

Buffy tried her absolute best to stay still. Had been doing her absolute best to remain in the background. She felt weak, drugged even and her best guess was that either Drusilla or Angelus had given her something while she'd been unconscious. She suspected Drusilla, she'd been the last thing Buffy had seen before blacking out but she couldn't be sure. All she'd known was waking up to a weight on top of her, a very uncomfortable one. She'd known, in a split-second, who it was and had done her damnedest to dislodge him. She'd been shocked to find she couldn't, that her muscles were quivering and weak. She'd scanned the room for a weapon and stopped when she saw him.

Spike was awake. Her eyes devoured him, took in every detail and realized ,with crystalline clarity, that he was hurt. His legs lay uselessly behind him, his upper body resting on arms whose hands had turned into fists, a cigarette spluttering out discarded on his left. His back was broken. She knew it was because it had been broken the first time too but she hadn't done that. She'd never do that, not this time around. He was defenseless and her mind had supplied pointedly so am I. She didn't know what to do, for the first time since she'd begun changing everything she didn't have a clue of what to do.

Didn't understand why Spikes eyes were like an ocean during a storm, dark and turbulent. She'd seen that look before but couldn't place it in her memories, not that it mattered. She understood him enough to know that something really really bad was about to happen, something neither of them was going to like. Something that made it impossible for him to look at her anymore. This had never happened to her before, not in this dimension. Oh there's been plenty of times he'd done it, in that other life, and it was something she had detested herself for after he had died. Pain exploded in her shoulder as something tore into her skin, eliciting a startled gasp.

Spikes eyes had found her again and the rage she saw there was both primal and absolute. His body jutted forward a few, precious inches and Angelus was pushed off of her only to be replaced with the cold, devastation, pressure of Drusillas hand. She didn't want to know what was going to happen, wanted to turn away but she couldn't. Angelus was shoving a man in front of Spike and Spike looked so broken in that moment. She understood the silent question, fought every instinct she possessed and nodded her head. These people would die no matter what and there was a chance, a slim chance, that she and Spike wouldn't if he did whatever it was Angelus wanted him to do. She didn't feel guilty, she felt blind, righteous fury. A fury that escalated as Spike screamed brutal agony into the night. She didn't feel the tears racing down her cheeks, she knew only that she had to be silent or else Spike might lose whatever strength was allowing him to endure this torture.

If she survived this that scream would haunt her dreams until the end of time. Already she felt the moment scar her mind. She'd always see this now; Spikes legs useless at his side as his upper body arched and spasmed, veins pushing against skin that was paler than she'd ever seen, eyes bulging and bloodshot locked on her as if she was the only thing left he had to hold on to, blood seeping down his shirt and the whole time a single un-ending scream. It was sheer dumb luck that made her eyes flicker to the body that had hit the floor ages ago. A body that had moved closer to her and was, apparently, aware.

"Find Jesse, tell him how to get here. Tell him what's happening."

She hadn't realized she'd said anything until after the words had escaped her, didn't know why she said anything at all except that what was happening was so much worse than her worst nightmare. That she wished her death would end his suffering shamed her, Spike would never have forgiven her such a cowardly thought. She made herself look at the man, the vamp, and familiarity struck. She'd never met this man but someone had, her si- had told her- - - Spike had spoken of someone, a vampire, once that had been killed by the Judge. Was that right? Da-w- Faith had said Spike had thought it odd that his love of books had been enough to give him humanity. It was a gamble.

"Please, Dalton."

The screaming had stopped and Buffy looked back only to see Spike fall forward onto the ground. Nearly growled when Angelus picked him up like a rag-doll. Heard Spikes voice two seconds before she felt a hand press against her left leg and then, suddenly, squeeze. She heard her bones grind together, shatter and pain exploded through her body leaving no room for anything else for, what seemed like, an eternity.

When the pain subsided, a little, she realized how quiet everything was. One quick look revealed that Angelus and Drusilla had left her alone. Her first impulse was to get Spike and get the Hell out of Dodge, when her body moved to act on that impulse her shattered leg send shock waves of pain throughout her body.

"Ok, can't get away. Think Buffy." The words were mumbled but it offered her some comfort. "Oh I fucked up big time." Her eyes shot back around the room, saw Spike in a heap not too far away from her just as he'd been in her dream a few nights ago. His legs...Damn it I can't heal fast enough to get myself out of here, much less carrying him along...But what if...? She didn't allow herself to finish the thought. She didn't have enough time to finish it.

Bracing herself for the pain Buffy pulled herself inch by torturous inch towards him. Moving as quickly as she dared, healing would take longer the more she jostled around. It took, what must have been, hours to get to him. He was out cold and still as death. She felt tears prick at her eyes but willed them away, now was not the time. Instead she looked around for something, anything, she could cut herself with. The few bricks she found wouldn't work and there wasn't much else to offer, scowling Buffy raised her wrist to her mouth and bit down. Hard. It took three more times before she managed to break open the skin enough, she didn't waste time. The moment she tasted that copper-tang she rested herself against him, used her shoulder to tilt his head back and shoved her wrist into his mouth.

She didn't know how long she had but she risked a few long minutes, until her body began to quiver from blood-loss and panic. She was quick to move back away from him, the return trip doubly hard because she was trying to keep her injured wrist from dripping blood on the floor and dragging along a few stray pieces of brick. Halfway back she felt her body weakening even more, knew that she was too weak to get back right now. Not with whatever she'd been doped with was out of her system. Using the brick she scraped her hands and both her wrists, hoped she disguised her injury well enough that Angelus would think she'd gotten them trying to crawl to Spike.

Arranging herself as best she could she turned her eyes back to Spike and waited.

Sorry for the long wait everyone but I hope you enjoy it. Ginar, you are awesome.

As always thank you, all of my reader, I hope you're all enjoying reading this story as much as I am writing it.