Chapter 9
Day 90
Spike placed the flowers down on top of Buffy's gravestone. It had been three months since her death. Spike still couldn't believe it had been so long. It felt like time had been moving so fast, but also standing still at the same time. She had been gone from this world for three months now and Spike still felt like it had happened yesterday. He missed her more every day. He missed the way she smelt, the warmth that she had brought. He missed their banter, he missed the way she faced every problem, every danger that came across her. He missed the Slayer and the woman that she was. He knew she didn't care for him very much, but he had been hoping that she was starting to respect having him around. Even if it was just as her weapon that she could pull out whenever she wanted. He had made a point in telling Dawn that she needed to live her life and not count the days that Buffy had been gone. But Spike knew he would always be counting the days.
He felt like there was this whole half of him gone now. There was nothing he could do about it. He had never felt like this. He didn't even feel this way when Dru left him and they had been together for a century. Every day that went by without Buffy in this world, Spike felt like he was physically getting weaker. He felt himself growing tired, he wasn't as hungry as normal. He wanted to spend all day in bed, he wasn't even interested in fighting. He was trying his best. He was still going to work and making sure the bills were paid. He was working to pay down the debt so Dawn wouldn't have to pay it later on in life. It was hard for him though. Every day was getting to be a challenge just to get out of bed. He had been getting blood from Der. He was having someone go and pick some up in a different town. That was the only way he had been able to get anything at all. There hadn't been any more spells placed on him and that was something that Spike was thankful for. Still, more demons were coming.
Having Faith here with him has helped. They were working almost every night going through on patrols to make sure the town was safe. At the same time though, they were keeping her presence here in town a secret. The last thing Spike or Faith wanted to deal with were the Scoobies. They both knew it wouldn't go over well and they were both looking to avoid any added stress, especially Spike. It had been two months since Tara and Dawn moved into the new house and Willow had yet to move in. She would come by the house and spend the night, but she wasn't living there. She wasn't helping with any of the bills. She wasn't helping with Dawn and making sure she was taken care of and going to school. It was all Tara and Spike doing it all.
"I wish you could hear me or sense me. Maybe it would help you to move on." Buffy said sadly, as she watched Spike leave the flowers.
Spike would come by a few times a week to visit her grave. He would spend hours sitting there looking at the tombstone and it was starting to really upset her. It wasn't that she felt like he should be doing something else or was upset that it was Spike sitting here. She was upset because he was in pain, it was clear that he was grieving still. All of her friends had stopped coming here. Buffy knew it because the only flowers that were ever left were the ones that Spike left. It felt like everyone had forgotten about her and had moved on, everyone but Spike. Buffy wasn't upset that her friends had moved on already, she didn't want them to be grieving forever. Still, it would have been nice if they visited her. Spike even visited her mom's grave once a week and placed flowers down on her grave. Buffy felt like Spike was still trying to take care of them, to be there for them, even though all he could see was a large stone.
"Bloody hell, how can you be gone this long? Oh Luv, I don't know how to move on from you. Feels like half of me is missing, this massive hole that is going to swallow me up. I'm tryin' to not let that happen, but it's gettin' hard Luv. So fucking hard." Spike said, before he ran his hand over his face.
"I'm sorry Spike. I had no idea that you would be in this much pain with my death. It's been three months though, it's time you started to work through the grief and heal from it. It's time you moved on in your life. This isn't healthy." Buffy gently said and for the hundredth time she wished he could hear her.
She didn't want Spike to be in this pain. She didn't want him to have to go through this. She wanted for him to be able to be happy and healthy. She wanted for him to be able to move on and find someone to be with. She didn't want him to be unhappy and miserable for the rest of his life, especially because that life could be centuries. Spike let out a sigh before he placed a kiss on the tombstone like always and then rose. Buffy followed him as he made his way out of the cemetery and headed for the main street. He needed to do a patrol, but he wanted to check in on Tara and Dawn first so he could go home afterwards and try to get some sleep.
Just as Spike was walking by an alley he was grabbed. Instinctively he swung out and landed a solid blow to the man's face, but the second his fist connected his head was exploding in pain.
"Oh my god, they're human." Buffy said with fear lacing her voice as she took in the dozen biker looking men.
They all went after Spike, punching and kicking him as they spoke.
"We don't tolerate child molesters in our town."
"Get up and fight like a man."
"Stop it!" Buffy screamed, but she knew it was pointless, they would never hear her.
She had no idea why they would think that Spike was a child molester, unless someone told them. Instantly Buffy thought of Willow. She had been trying to get Spike to leave town for an unclear reason. She had to have been the one to tell these guys that Spike was a child molester, she probably figured they would kill him. Buffy watched in horror as Spike stopped moving and three men pulled out long knives and started to stab him all over his back and into his neck. It wouldn't kill him, but Buffy knew it would be very painful and if he lost too much blood he wouldn't be able to get back to his crypt where he could drink blood and heal without the threat of sunlight. By the time the men walked away, Spike was unconscious and laying in a pool of his own blood.
Buffy could feel her body trembling slightly. She had never seen someone being stabbed like this before. It wasn't even a fair fight, Spike couldn't fight back. He couldn't defend himself against humans that were attacking him. Normally Buffy wouldn't be bothered by it, but she had never seen just what threat there could be to Spike from a simple man. She never truly understood the position the chip placed him in.
"Spike." Buffy said, as she moved and bent down. "Oh now would be a really great time for you to be able to hear me. Wait, you can't hear me, but maybe Jackson can somehow."
Buffy let out a slow breath before she closed her eyes and tried to picture Jackson. She had no idea if this was even going to work, but she was really hoping that he would be able to hear her calling out to him. She continued to keep calling Jackson's name and when she was about to give up she heard his voice.
"Buffy, is everything alright?"
"Oh thank god. No, everything is not alright. Spike was attacked by a gang of human bikers. He's unconscious and he's lost a lot of blood. They stabbed him close to thirty-six times. I don't know what to do."
"Where are you?"
"Fifth and Main in a side alley."
"We're heading your way now."
Buffy let out a sigh of relief knowing that someone was coming for Spike. She didn't know if he would wake up before the sun would start to rise and Dawn needed him to be there for her. He was the only one truly taking care of her and Buffy wasn't certain that Dawn would be able to handle losing him as well. Buffy wasn't certain how long she had waited before Der, Jackson and Damon arrived at the alley. The whole time Spike hadn't even moved and Buffy was really getting worried that something could be seriously wrong.
"Jesus fuck." Der growled out as they took in the sight of Spike.
"We gotta get him back to his place." Damon said.
Both him and Der went and grabbed Spike and lifted him together. Buffy followed as they brought him over to a truck and placed him down in the bed of it. Damon and Der both got inside of it with him while Jackson drove. Buffy quickly got into the truck bed and watched as both Damon and Der tried to slow some of the bleeding down and take inventory of his injuries.
"Something has to be done about the chip. He can't be defenseless against humans." Damon said to Der and Buffy could tell that he was pissed off about what happened to Spike.
"Where the chip is in his brain isn't an easy place to get to. It's a miracle he even lived through the surgery to get it in. It gets removed wrong and parts of his brain will die permanently. It could alter his personality, affect his eyesight, his speech, everything. We need a specialist that can remove it, but we haven't found one yet. I've been looking and everything's coming up blank."
That surprised Buffy. She had no idea that they had been looking for a way to get the chip out of Spike. She wasn't sure how she felt about it. She could agree though that Spike not being able to defend himself against a human was dangerous. She didn't want him to be able to hurt a human, but she didn't want him to not be able to protect himself if he was attacked again. That wasn't fair to him and it wasn't fair to Dawn for her to lose someone that had become like a brother to her. They arrived at Spike's crypt and both Damon and Der carried Spike once again from the truck and got him inside and down onto his bed.
"He's losing too much blood." Der said, as he saw the amount of blood that was covering both of him and Damon's torso.
"He's only got three packages of blood." Jackson said, as he came down with the blood in his hands.
"I'll get him more." Der said, as Jackson passed the blood over to Damon along with a mug.
Damon opened one of the blood packages and poured it into the mug. He then removed his jacket and got down onto the bed. He lifted Spike up from under his shoulders and sat down, placing Spike against his chest. Damon let his fangs down and cut his wrist before he brought it over to Spike's mouth. He knew that Spike would drink, he just needed to wake him up enough to get him to drop his fangs. Damon placed his wrist against Spike's mouth and some of his blood got into his mouth. It only took a moment before Damon felt Spike's fangs drop and he started to drink his blood. Spike's eyes opened slightly and he looked up to see Damon.
"It's ok William, just drink." Damon said gently, as he ran his hand through Spike's hair.
Spike's eyes closed as he moved his hand up slowly and lightly gripped Damon's hand as he drank his powerful blood. Damon reached over and grabbed the mug and drank the blood so it would replenish his own.
"Is he going to be ok?" Buffy asked Jackson.
"He will be alright. Damon's blood is very powerful, more so than yours. Spike will recover and be back to perfect health in a day or two."
"Good. Something has to be done about his chip. He could have died tonight, this can't happen again." Buffy said.
"I am surprised you feel that way. I would have figured you would never want the chip out."
"I'm not happy about it, but it's not fair to Dawnie if he dies because he couldn't protect himself from being attacked by a human. The problem is there will be nothing stopping him from killing people again. He's already having a hard time getting blood, without the chip, there will be nothing to stop him from feeding off people."
"He won't feed off people. He knows it would upset you and Dawn if he did. Even with you dead, he isn't going to risk disgracing your memory. You don't have to worry about him hurting anyone."
Buffy wasn't too confident about that. It sounded nice, but she wasn't sure if Spike would be able to control himself if he was too hungry. But Buffy also knew she didn't have much of a choice either. She couldn't risk Spike being killed and leaving Dawn on her own. Buffy watched as Spike drank from Damon for a good fifteen minutes before his face changed back and Damon pulled his wrist back. Spike was sound asleep as Damon gently moved away from him and placed him down onto the bed. Damon then grabbed the rest of the blood and poured it into his mug and downed it.
"He going to be ok?" Der asked.
"He will be after he sleeps. His body is almost healed, he just needs rest to help restore his blood levels." Damon said, as he moved away from the bed. He nodded his head to the others to follow him over to the other side of the crypt where they would be further away from Spike.
"What is it?" Der whispered so Spike's hearing wouldn't pick them up.
"From the moment I met William I have always felt a deep connection with him. He reminds me of Draven. The way he has emotions, he feels pain, his mannerisms. His eyes though, those eyes are exactly like Draven's. I've often wondered over the years if there was a familia connection between William and Draven. William doesn't know about his father, he doesn't even know his name. I went and did some research and there is no record of who his father could be anywhere. I've spoken to some demons that were around in that time and the few that had seen his mother all said the same thing, there was never any man around her. She was never married, it was as if she just got pregnant one day."
"People don't just get pregnant. It could have been a servant. The cross in social standings could have been why it was kept quiet." Jackson commented.
"No, Spike told me it was only women in the house. Because his mother lived alone she couldn't have male servants." Der said.
"Ok, but she obviously had sex with someone." Buffy said, not really sure what the big deal was. Plenty of women have children nowadays and you never know who the father was. It couldn't have been that uncommon back then.
"I met with a coven and they performed a spell that allowed me to go back and see what happened the year leading up to Spike's conception. There was never a man. I followed his mother around the whole time, she never dated anyone. She neer met with one. She was however a witch in her own coven. Dealt with black magic and one night they performed a ceremony. It was all in Latin and a lot was spoken but it basically boils down to; the dark knight will live again. The warrior of the dark for her light. Together they will eliminate the darkness and be at peace for all eternity. At the end of the ritual the black smoke went into his mother. She came back the next night for another ritual to confirm she was pregnant."
"Wait, what?" Buffy asked, shocked.
"You think he was magically born?" Der asked, shocked as well.
"But why?" Jackson asked.
"I had the coven go back to before Draven was conceived. His mother had always told him that he was gifted to her from the Gods. His mother was a member of the same coven, just eleven hundred years ago. They performed the same ritual on her. The coven and I did extensive research and we were able to find others going all the way back to 1400 BD. A total of a hundred and fifty magical births, including William." Damon answered.
"Why? What would be the point in having them being magically conceived?" Der asked, confused.
"There was obviously a reason for it." Jackson said.
"Ya, but what? And whatever they are supposed to be doing, it's clearly not working if it's taken them a hundred and fifty times to try and get it right." Buffy commented.
"We did as much research on the past lives as we could. Most died from disease or war and at a young age. However the ten lives before William was conceived all have a pattern in who they have married. All have married a Slayer. Four were turned into a vampire and even they married a Slayer." Damon said.
"Wait, a Slayer and a vampire have been together?" Buffy asked, confused.
"They have. It is not that uncommon in your world. Your Watcher and the Council have kept a great deal hidden from their Slayers. They do not wish for them to know just how grey the world truly is."
"We found an ancient prophecy that states one day a night walker that must consume life's liquid and a girl with Heaven's light within her will battle the forces of darkness within the world for all eternity. The souls will reincarnate and find the other in each life. Growing stronger as each new life is given to them until darkness collapses. Afterwards they will spend an eternity at peace. The prophecy obviously hasn't come true yet and most believe it's complete bullshit." Damon continued not knowing that Buffy spoke.
"But if you combine that with the one hundred and fifty people being born magically for the past thousands of years, the prophecy has some merit." Jackson said.
"Ok, so if this is real, if Spike is a reincarnated soul, why no father? And does that mean the Slayer was also a reincarnated soul or has he not met his soulmate yet?" Der said, as he started to move around.
"Spike said earlier at my grave that he felt like half of him was missing. That he had never felt like this before and didn't know what to do. That he felt weaker. Could that be connected?" Buffy said.
"Spike had mentioned briefly to me that he felt like half of him was missing. That he felt weaker. I assumed it was normal grief, but given what we know now, is it possible that Buffy was his soulmate?" Jackson asked.
"Given how deeply his love is for her it's most likely she was. I can't speak about the others, but I know with Draven, he was in love with his mate Cassidy for ten years before she finally admitted to being in love with him. William and Draven, they are connected with their human emotions and the demon makes it easier for them to accept what they feel as true. We could probably assume the other previous two vampires were as well."
"Draven died after his mate, so how long did he last before he died?" Der asked.
"He made it four months. He got weaker, tired all the time, his body started to reject blood to the point that he could only keep my own down. And even that wasn't enough. He laid down one night and he turned to dust."
"Ok, I know Spike has been tired more often and he's not as strong, but he wasn't getting proper blood for a couple of years. He's been busy working his ass off all night and then helping with Dawn during the day. It makes sense that he's tired and not as strong. It's been three months and he's not throwing up blood." Der said.
"If he does throw up blood though, what are we going to do?" Jackson asked.
"I'll give him mine." Damon stated.
"But we don't know if that will work. Draven was your Childe, it would make sense that your blood would keep him alive. You're not Spike's Sire. Angelus owns him, if he needs his Sire's blood, Angelus will never give it to him. He's been abusing him since the very first day he laid eyes on him." Der said with a deep hatred to his voice.
"If he starts to reject the blood then I'll claim him as mine." Damon simply said.
"What does that mean?" Buffy asked.
"A Sire claim can be done when a vampire turns another. It can also be done by another vampire laying claim to another vampire. It has to be mutual between the two and the other vampire has to be more powerful than the original Sire."
"And Damon is stronger than Angel?"
"He's ten times stronger than Angelus. Damon will win against him every time, in every way. Damon laying a Sire claim onto Spike wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. It would actually be good for Spike. A true Sire and Childe bond is one of the deepest bonds within the vampire community. It's as close as a mated bond. A true Sire/Childe bond allows them to feel the other's emotions, their presences. They can communicate with each other through their minds. It's a very deep connection and it makes the Childe stronger. The pain and loneliness that Spike feels, it would be healed with being close to Damon."
"That's going to piss off Angelus." Der instantly said.
"I will handle him. For now we keep an eye on him and make sure his body isn't rejecting blood." Damon said.
At the sound of the door upstairs opening they all turned their attention at the direction of the sound. A deep growl came from Damon as he spoke. "Angelus. Stay here, I'll handle him."
"I really wish I could go and see that." Buffy said, knowing that she wouldn't be able to make it up the ladder. Her teether to Spike was too short to allow her to.
Damon made his way up the stairs and quickly saw that Angel was heading towards the trap door that would have led him down to Spike. He also saw the surprise flash through Angel's eyes at the sight of him. Because Damon was so old he could easily mask his presence within a room from any vampire or demon. Yet another perk for being so old.
"Damon, what are you doing here?" Angel demanded.
"You don't demand things from me boy. I will do whatever I want and I will go wherever I please. You on the other hand are not welcome here nor are you welcome in my town." Damon said with a deadly edge to his voice.
"This isn't your town. This town belongs to the Slayer."
"Who is dead. And with me now living here, I own it. Everyone within this town, human and supernatural, has to answer to me. I can banish anyone I wish and you have been banished. You will never go near William again."
"That's my Childe, not yours. You don't have the authority to keep me from him. I own him and I will see him whenever I demand." Angel growled.
He didn't care about Spike, but he wasn't about to be told he couldn't see who rightfully belonged to him. He owned Spike and if he wanted to see him, then he was going to. It was just that simple. Before Angel's mind could even process the movement Damon was grabbing him from the front of his throat in a grip so tight it brought Angel down to his knees.
"He is no one's property. William is under my protection and if you or your pet witch tries anything to harm him again, I will kill you both. You are a disgrace to the fight against the darkness and I will not tolerate you being around my friend. You have twenty minutes to get out of my town before I come for you. This is your only warning. If I see you again in my town, if I hear about anything you or your pet witch has done to William. I will kill every last one of your people in front of you before sending you to Hell. Now say yes Sir."
"Yes Sir." Angel seethed.
"Your clock is ticking." Damon said with one last squeeze before he tossed Angel down onto the ground as he let go of his neck.
Damon could tell that Angel was pissed, but he didn't care. Angel meant nothing to him and there was nothing he could do against him. He was nowhere near strong enough and if he tried to go after Spike again, he would kill him. He had already lost his Childe once, he was not going to lose him again. Not while it was within his power to stop it. Spike was going to live and he was going to ensure it.
